DVD Piracy in Urdaneta and else where

DVD Pirates
are still raking in quite a good revenue not only in Urdaneta but also in Manila and other big cities. They have this DVD that has 10 movies recorded in the slowest speed ( about 8 hours playing time ). So you have a mixture of Classics plus some which are still being shown in the theatres, ( but already available in the Internet ) all in one disk. The single disk is packaged in an 8 by 10 plastic pouch which features the miniature cover designs of these 10 movies.

Adding insult to injury, the DVD is marked as Blu Ray. Those people who designed the package does not seem to know Blu Ray from a pile of dog crap on the roadside. Well, anything goes in the Philippines as they say, whether it comes to DVD production or running the government.

The legitimate DVD releases that are sold in franchise stores like THE ODYSSEY cost about 700 pesos per title. That comes to around 17 $ Canadian. Not bad. Considering that the new releases here in Toronto cost around 25$ ( in regular DVD format ) and 32$ ( in the Blu Ray version ). And unlike the "Blu Ray" discs sold in Manila, you can not play this Blu Ray disk in an ordinary DVD player.

These legit DVD copies are released by the Philippine Video distributors like Viva Productions or ABS CBN but they still carry the Warner Bros. or 20th Century Fox logos. I was advised not to buy this legit copy. I asked why. My companion said,

"With 700 pesos you can buy at least 50 pirated movies.." Maybe he has a point in there..

And these pirated copies are sold in the corridors of big malls like SM or the Magic Mall in Urdaneta. Now where is Mr. Manzano, the movie and anti - Piracy buster when you need him?...