Copycats

Here in the Philippines, home entertainment is a luxury almost anyone can afford. Want to watch a couple of movies but only have 100 pesos? You could even watch eight movies with that money. Can't wait till next week for another round of Grey's Anatomy or One Tree Hill? Pirated DVDs can get you through lengthy movie marathons and whole TV series seasons in just one night. Not that I'm advertising. That's old news. Bootleg discs are so common and sellable here that it's actually shocking when someone buys a real DVD.

But of course, counterfeiters these days don't just stop at discs. Like shrewd businessmen, they have vastly expanded their product line to include books, medicine, shoes, food, and even vehicles. Taking a tour in downtown Cebu recently, I discovered 'Write Rabbit' candy, 'Orio' cookies and the unbeatable 'Shyflakes' crackers. Sound amusingly familiar? But frankly not very appetizing!

As a student in the city, one can find more photocopying shops around campus than real bookstores. The practice is common: Instead of scouring the stores for rare and expensive textbooks, college students just copy them for half the price (Wait, are there prosecutors reading this part? Uh-oh).

In other parts of Asia, I've read that fake Coke is being stirred in dingy bathtubs in India, fake Haagen-Dazs ice cream concocted in Singapore and in China, even fake Nissan motorcycles are made that could fall apart at high speeds. Apparently there are no limits to what can be copied. The counterfeiting business is dangerously gaining ground.

A bizarre result: A product ends up competing against itself in the same market. And it's a difficult battle, knowing that the typical consumer prefers the cheaper alternative.

Counterfeits are a serious economic threat. They take away supposed corporate profits and eat away at brand value. They also threaten foreign investment. My schoolmate Mark and I were discussing this bit on foreign investment, especially in terms of software companies. I'll share Mark's research and thoughts here. Good thing his ideas aren't patented:

We need to strengthen and strictly enforce our Philippine laws to combat piracy. A foreign corporation and potential investor looks not only in the infrastructure of the country and availability of skilled manpower but also it will see that their intellectual property will be protected.

Our government once wanted our country to be the next IT Hub of Asia. We do have great human resources in developing software. But it's unrealistic to think of such prestige if we even glance at our poor records of battling software piracy. We can't even protect our own Filipino authors, inventors and software designers. How could we possibly protect foreign investors then? It would be unfair for them to invest substantially, only to be copied here in the Philippines.

That's why foreign corporations opt for Singapore or other such countries that have proven to put teeth to their laws. One time, a colleague (of Mark) brought a pirated DVD copy of a movie to Singapore and at the airport, he was fined a thousand Singaporean dollars. That's how strict they are.

That's how strict we ought to be too. Where there are loopholes in our laws on intellectual property rights, we have to fill them in. Through this, we may catch up with Singapore and India in their IT development. Otherwise we would still be considered as just an angry tigress next to our tiger Asian neighbors.

Well said! Hopefully we can see that in the future. It would be a pity to waste our Pinoy software potential.

But still I cannot be a hypocrite. Counterfeit things seem like good deals and great buys. Aside from the law enforcers, the buyers themselves play a huge role in the piracy industry. In a place where price has a supreme influence on consumer choice, what's a buyer to do? I leave that thought to your own opinion though.

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