Perhaps I am lucky enough to have "FILM" as the topic for me and my partner MJ's industry seminar because I myself is a film buff, be it Hollywood or a local film, aside from the fact that I am a practitioner in the said industry for years, in production and on cam.
And for that reason, I would like to stress how piracy killed the mainstream film industry in the process.
I will not deny that I, myself, buy pirated DVD because of dozens of advantages.
Aside from the the fact that pirated DVDs are cheaper than the original ones, you can just lay your back and sit at the comfort of your couch in the bedroom while watching a good quality pirated DVD with regards to its audio and visual effects and most of the time, these DVDs come in advance than the actual showing of the movie in cinemas. So, how can you beat that?
But of course, we are not promoting pirated DVDs. As what our speaker Direk Cesar Buendia stressed in his interesting talk, we should not buy pirated DVDs because we are actually committing a crime when we support these products. That is right, hence, we are going to try to stop buying pirated DVDs :( (actually, we already started boycotting pirated DVDs months ago).
According to the Optical Media Board (OMB) Chairman Ronnie Ricketts, their agency is finding it hard to stop this kind of illegal activities. They can raid the locations where the vendors usually sell these products but the chairman admits that as long as the majority of the people are supporting and patronizing illegal DVDs, it will be difficult for them to stop it.
In fact, the agency is even compromising with the illegal DVD manufacturers to please stop producing local films and instead, mass produce the illegal DVDs on Hollywood films.
This should not be the case but because of the proliferation of the pirated DVDs and the massive support this activity is getting from the masses, the least that Chairman Ricketts has to do is to compromise.
Actually, this should not happen because the agency should confiscate all illegal DVDs, be is Hollywood or local, but because of the saleability of illegal DVDs in the market, a settlement with the illegal manufacturers is the next best thing to do, the people from the agency believe.
Thank God there are indie films which gave the mainstream industry a life extension.
We suggest that aside from Cinemalaya, Cinemanila and Cinema 1, the government should give their full support on indie film producers to save the dying Philippine cinema which was leading in Asia years ago, in terms of the number of films produced per year.
I will not deny that I, myself, buy pirated DVD because of dozens of advantages.
Aside from the the fact that pirated DVDs are cheaper than the original ones, you can just lay your back and sit at the comfort of your couch in the bedroom while watching a good quality pirated DVD with regards to its audio and visual effects and most of the time, these DVDs come in advance than the actual showing of the movie in cinemas. So, how can you beat that?
But of course, we are not promoting pirated DVDs. As what our speaker Direk Cesar Buendia stressed in his interesting talk, we should not buy pirated DVDs because we are actually committing a crime when we support these products. That is right, hence, we are going to try to stop buying pirated DVDs :( (actually, we already started boycotting pirated DVDs months ago).
According to the Optical Media Board (OMB) Chairman Ronnie Ricketts, their agency is finding it hard to stop this kind of illegal activities. They can raid the locations where the vendors usually sell these products but the chairman admits that as long as the majority of the people are supporting and patronizing illegal DVDs, it will be difficult for them to stop it.
In fact, the agency is even compromising with the illegal DVD manufacturers to please stop producing local films and instead, mass produce the illegal DVDs on Hollywood films.
This should not be the case but because of the proliferation of the pirated DVDs and the massive support this activity is getting from the masses, the least that Chairman Ricketts has to do is to compromise.
Actually, this should not happen because the agency should confiscate all illegal DVDs, be is Hollywood or local, but because of the saleability of illegal DVDs in the market, a settlement with the illegal manufacturers is the next best thing to do, the people from the agency believe.
Thank God there are indie films which gave the mainstream industry a life extension.
We suggest that aside from Cinemalaya, Cinemanila and Cinema 1, the government should give their full support on indie film producers to save the dying Philippine cinema which was leading in Asia years ago, in terms of the number of films produced per year.
Director Buendia pointed out that piracy has actually become a culture, which makes it even harder to manage and confront. I do buy pirated DVDs on occassion. I used to buy them a lot before I started downloading. For me, although I do see both sides of the issue, I think that there is a difference between sharing content(peer to peer sharing online) and making a profit out of content (selling pirated DVDs) - the latter is what I consider to be more of an issue and a questionable practice.
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