Piracy in the Philippines

Piracy is a terrible phenomenon that denominated the sea history before. However, it did not stop there. Piracy changes too as human’s life evolves and now piracy is terrorizing the land. The common meaning of piracy is the piracy that means the robbery on high seas. But because of the advances in technology and the extensive modernization the world gave birth to the second meaning of this word. The term “piracy” for electronic and audio-visual meaning is the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of intellectual property. This kind of meaning for “piracy” was probably derived from Daniel Defoe’s novel True Born Englishman in 1703 where he said: It’s being printed again and again by Pyrates.

Our paper addresses the issue of media piracy in the Philippines from a number of perspectives. Drawing on interviews with traders of pirated media material, it looks at piracy as a means of distributing films and at how the piracy market works. It also examines the effects that access to quality movies has on the local film culture and media literacy in general and on the teaching of film in particular. Then it examines the unprecedented rise of media piracy in the last few years as one of the most prominent issues of the “digital” millenium.

Our paper also addresses the issue of media piracy in the Philippines from a number of different viewpoints. First of all, we look at piracy as a means of distributing films, and - drawing on our research involved with piracy networks - on how the piracy market works. Secondly, we will formulate some preliminary ideas on the nature of media piracy in the Philippines. The unprecedented rise of media piracy in the last couple of years is one of the most prominent issues of the digital millennium. Surprisingly the pirates in the Philippines seem to make little use of the means of digital distribution that are available to them, but instead of rely on more “traditional” methods, that include messengers and personal delivery, and using...