(CD) Pirates Take to the Ocean

rammstein_rulz writes "www.cdfreaks.com reports that asian CD pirates now produce thousands of pirated VCD's on anchored ships in international waters to avoid getting caught. Malaysian marine police have been asked to be on the lookout for pirate ships"

Comments

Cheaper by the million

[mangu]

Why bother with small scale copying at all? Instead of trying to impose non-working copy-protection on consumer hardware, the media industry should focus on large scale copying.

If I was trying to make money in IP violations, this is how I would do it:

1) Forge documents from media companies, ordering large batches of CDs and DVDs from established manufacturers.

2) Sell those records to wholesalers, which might or might not be aware of the scam.

3) Profit

Hilarious

[ffatTony]

Police in Penang last week launched "Operation Green Ribbon" to nab peddlers of illegal CDs and VCDs and Mazlan said they had already arrested four retailers and seized over 1,000 pirated copies.

I went to Penang just recently and there were literally multi-floor malls selling professional copies of Oracle for $20, dvds for $2-5 (based upon quality), Adobe products, MS products, etc. It was so vast it was staggering. One guy took a duffel bag overflowing with dvds/software back with us.

Basically what I'm getting at is if they've only found 1000 pirated copies, then they are either totally inept or not trying very hard.

Re:Hilarious

[gotr00t]

Yes, I agree that the law enforcement around the far east are doing a horrid job. Apparently, last time I went to China, there were literally entire floors of a mall covered with retailers of pirated CD's. Most of them were selling the exact same thing, hinting at a similar souce. Some of the packages were printed well, and had a good design to them, and most of the CDs were of poor quality, but were pressed, and not burned. There were also CD's that came in packages that looked like it came out of an inkjet printer, and the CD itself was a CD-R.

Apparently, these operations can never really be stopped because while I was there, I literally saw police go and buy some copies of some VCD's (not seized, bought). These people just don't realize that their personal gain in purchasing and selling cheap software may be good for them in the short run, but disasterous to their nation in the long run.

Re:What I found to be funny...

[Flounder]

I worked for a Pirate radio station in Tijuana a few years ago. Technically, they weren't illegal, they just had their station and transmitter about 150yds from the border in San Diego and blasted about 75,000 watts.

They had a "subsidiary" that was stationed on a old oil drilling ship, that sat moored off outside in international waters off the coast of NYC, and broadcast at 60,000 watts. People there would work and live on the ship, only going ashore about once a month for supplies.

Pot, kettle, black.

[TheLink]

What do you mean by "These people just don't realize that their personal gain in purchasing and selling cheap software may be good for them in the short run, but disasterous to their nation in the long run"

It's not that stupid.

Maybe you don't realize it but this sort of thing worked for the USA, it worked for Switzerland and I'm sure it worked for many other countries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2002379.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,6 65 861,00.html

Open your eyes dude. The only reason it'll be bad in the long run is if the USA takes hypocritical, harsh and unfair action to stop others from doing precisely what it did for its own benefit in the past. Trade barriers etc etc.

Try to see it from this point of view just for a moment.

Re:Freedonia, and "Micro Nations"

[mcrbids]

Why not a real Country?

Say, perhaps, the "Country" of Sealand?

Now, here you might have something! You get the 3 guys (or whatever) to agree to register with the International Registry, and ... voila!

Heck, they practically are a ship to begin with!

But this raises more questions... What if you have a permanently anchored "dock" at sea? Something that floats, with pools, solar water purifiers, etc, and market it as a "vacation resort"?

Make it big, and kinda sprawling, and make it float. What then? Cruise ships today routinely take passengers numbering thousands, already many more people than something like Sealand.

At what point can a manmade structure become a nation?

Re:International Waters

[Melantha_Bacchae]

An AC wrote:

> I believe that a vessel in internation waters is
> subject to the laws of its flag country -- the
> country in which the vessel is registered.

Then these ships must fly a gold sun cross on a field of blue, the flag of that island whose language is song. Its divine Queen has never recognized the property rights, real or "intellectual", of the media sharks before ("Mosura" 1961, "Mosura tai Gojira" 1964, or "Gojira, Ebira, Mosura: Nankai no Dai Ketto" 1966), and I don't see her starting anytime soon.

Seriously, I think it bears pointing out that these ships are pressing VCDs of movies so we are talking MPAA here -- let us get our sharks straight. The market for these unauthorized copies is to people in the region who would never, ever, be able to afford a full price DVD. As with software, cheap versions of the hardware is a seriously major purchase for them (assuming they don't just use a computer at an internet cafe). Just forget about their having anything but pocket change to pay for the software/movies/etc. The street vendors hawking these unauthorized copies sell at what the market would bear. The media sharks do not sell to these people, so there is demand, but not much money, and no legitimate products to fill the demand.

The people out in boats making these VCDs are *not* real pirates. They do not hijack ships, murder, or rape (at least, that we know of). Yes, they are breaking a law, but so is the average American who speeds on the way to work, parks without paying the meter, or lies on income tax forms.

If the media sharks were remotely interested in actually putting an end to this terrible crime, they'd sign these "pirates" on as local distributors for a cut of their profits! The people get their movies at a price they can afford, the newly ordained distributors can conduct their business under more pleasant conditions, and the police can save their efforts for those who continue to prefer breaking the law and, gasp, actual murderers! The sharks save money on enforcement, and make a little money from their new distributors.

But no, that would be common sense. We can't have that!

Bells are ringing: Mothra, Mothra! Every heart is calling: Mothra, Mothra!
Come on, Tok Wira, these sharks have gotta pay! New Kirk calling Mothra, we need you today!

G Countdown: 23 days (www.godzillaoncube.com)

Re:Enemies of Your Friend Are Now Your Enemies

[reallocate]

Ummm...choosing the wrong word isn't a mistake of grammar.

Sure, the price of CD's is too high. And, sure, that's an incentive to get it elsewhere. People are still buying them, though. Someone paid cash for that CD they're "sharing".

The best way to force CD prices to drop is to stop buying CD's at those prices. Start putting some stores out of business.

Re:Bring back Privateering.

[Treeluvinhippy]

umm, privateers where pirates who held letters of marque. A letter of marque ment, when country A was at war with country B you can committ acts of piracy agaisnt country B and have a safe harbor to return (country A).

Hehe, maybe Sony would be interested in allowing me to pirate cd's produced by Virgin records for example, as long as I don't touch anything produced by Sony. In exchange they will provide me with lawyers to legaly protect my ass. Well fat chance of that happening