More on Piracy

Two papers on piracy were presented at the 6th Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam last July 1-4. The first one tackled piracy as cinephilia and the other one as an alternative distribution for films.

Piracy as cinephilia, or love of films, makes the ownership of classic films--be it local or foreign--possible for those who can't afford the original copies of these films. The author (a foreigner) of this paper focused on Quiapo, and she analyzed blogs, forums, and websites pertaining to buying DVDs. The comments range from giving tips on how to spot a good pirated copy, maps on where to buy good DVDs, and what to wear and what to bring when going to Quiapo.

One finding that I find interesting is that through piracy, archiving of film classics has become possible. She mentioned a plan for archiving films initiated by the Philippine government before, but it didn't push through because there was no funding. This agency was supposed to be put up in Los Baños, Laguna. 

Until now, there is no concrete government action to archive our old films. Copies of some Filipino films before are found in foreign countries, and we have to buy these from them. Some of these classic Filipino films, however, are in Quiapo. One just has to know where to look for them. In this case, an individual can archive our films better than the government.

The second paper talked about piracy as an alternative distribution circuit for films. Two Filipino attendees shared that there are independent filmmakers who considered and actually contacted "master pirates" to pirate their films and sell them in Quiapo. Another foreign attendee said that one filmmaker will have legal copies of films packaged as pirated and then sell it as a pirated copy. These stories sound ironic (and funny), but it only shows how piracy has become the norm for most cinephiles to own a copy of timeless and beautiful films.

Of course, the ethical question on piracy is still hanging over our heads, but when you see a Kurosawa set of films or Lino Brocka's classics sold at P30 or P40, who has time to philosophize on that?