WE Filipinos are known to be frugal — many of us will do what it takes to save money in our purchases. Unfortunately, one of the ways many of our kababayans choose to save a few bucks is by buying pirated and counterfeited materials, and they even take pride in the savings they make.
While saving and being frugal may be good, purchasing pirated materials may be a short-term gain that may backfire on us on a long term. This is especially true if you are in the business of selling pirated materials AND if you are on the other side— the buyer that helps these thieves’ businesses thrive.
Take the case of kababayan Lenie Ashby and her husband Jeffrey. They may have to pay a lot of money — up to $10 million in damages — after being slammed with a copyright and trademark infringement case by ABS-CBN before an Oregon Federal Court last August 7. This resulted to the freezing of the Ashby’s ad sales revenue and bank accounts.
The couple allegedly own numerous pirate sites which infringe upon the copyrights and trademarks of parent company ABS-CBN’s popular TV shows and movies.
As correspondent Henni Espinosa said on the Balitang America Special Report on Piracy, Jeffrey and Lenie Ashby have admitted to authorities that they own five websites with pirated material from ABS-CBN — including pinoymoviefan.com, watchfilipinotv.com, and watchfilipinomovies.com.
The Asbys are not alone. The Federal Court has ordered a Temporary Restraining Order against 12 pirate sites.
ABS-CBN also partnered with Investigative Consultants in urging lawmakers to seize over 4,500 counterfeit DVDs worth $90,000 dollars from FLB Video Pinoy last May, a Filipino-owned company in Long Beach, Calif. Owners Fernando Bernabe and his wife Anita, were arrested and have subsequently been charged with felony counts. Each of them face three years in prison because of this crime.
Kris Buckner, director of Investigative Consultants told Balitang America: “Well, it’s a felony crime. People can be arrested. They can be sentenced up to three years in state prison for the sale of counterfeit and pirated movies and music, hard goods. So there are good penalties on the books. Also, people would have to pay a fine and potentially – restitution.”
Buckner added in the Balitang America Special Report that pirated materials seem to be everywhere now. They are sold in the streets by vendors, and could also be committed in the privacy of your own home and all that’s needed is a computer and access to the Internet.
Buckner pointed out that many may not realize that when they download copyrighted music, movies, games or books without permission from the owner and seller and don’t pay it that they’re already breaking the law.
Investigators warned that besides refraining from downloading copyrighted materials online, consumers should also be wary about buying pirated DVDs on the streets. Pirated materials may be cheaper, investigators said they are actually low quality.
Bucker explained on Balitang America that said people can tell what’s fake and what’s real – not only by price or by where it’s sold – but by its appearance. Original DVDs usually come in a shell case with clean artwork and with grammatically-correct descriptions. Lower quality counterfeits are usually seen in plain white envelopes with sloppy printing and bad wordings.
Buckner noted that all authentic disks are replicated through a multimillion dollar machine and are not burned onto a recordable disk. A quick indicator, he added, is that if the bottom of the disk has a purple hue – it is a burned disk. Therefore, it’s a pirated copy.
Balitang America aired the statement of Elisha Lawrence, Associate VP of Global Anti-Piracy for ABS-CBN International, on this fight against piracy:
“We have begun a relentless campaign to enforce against all pirate sites because of the numerous reports we are receiving that these pirate sites contain dangerous malware which cause substantial harm to people including identity theft of their financial information, phishing attacks where people receive fake emails from their banks asking for passwords and attacks on their email contacts. We will not rest until every one of these pirate sites are down and the owners of these sites are punished.”
PIRACY is defined as act of reproducing movies, music, books or other copyrighted works without the permission from the copyright owner. This crime has cost companies all over the world $512 billion dollars a annually. Companies in the U.S. lose as much as $250 billion dollars a year because of piracy.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is one of the biggest policing agencies in the United States that combats piracy. Los Angeles is one of the cities that have big Filipino population in the United States.
“It’s not a victimless crime,” Todd Rogers, LA County Assistant Sheriff, told Balitang America. “There are plenty of victims and it’s not just about saving a buck for major corporations. It’s about real people like us.”
The impact of piracy on ordinary people
Looking beyond the here and now, it is important to look at the issue of piracy from a bigger perspective.
Here is how the Balitang America’s Special Report on Piracy breaks it down:
Piracy takes away jobs. Authorities said because of these crimes, people who have jobs in the industries affected will no longer have jobs because the demand for legitimate products have gone down.
This crime also takes away the much needed services for the community. Authorities said the tax revenue that’s lost because of this underground economy means lesser budget for services that directly impact the community – like education and healthcare.
Also, authorities pointed out that not many people realize how piracy actually aids and abets organized crime. They explained that gangs and even terrorist groups have reportedly entered the piracy market because the penalties are much lighter than traditional crimes such as drug dealing – and the profit could be much higher.
“That’s supporting their ability to buy drugs and guns and engaging in violence,” Rogers told Balitang America. “And then, the support of global terrorism, which is a threat to everybody.”
Virus. Yes — dangerous malicious virus. Authorities warn that pirate sites also contain malware which cause substantial harm to people, including identity theft of their financial information and phishing attacks on a person’s email contacts.
As the Balitang America Special Report explained, Malware is short for malicious software and it’s described as any kind of unwanted software that’s installed without your adequate consent. Examples of malware like viruses, worms, Trojan horses — disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information and access to private computer systems.
The report further stated that a recent study from protection intelligence analyst firm Incopro shows that 97 percent of the most popular illegal film and TV pirate sites contain malware.
Todd Rogers, Los Angeles County assistant sheriff made an appeal to the Fil-Am community to come together and put a stop to piracy.
Rogers said on Balitang America: “We want to partner with you. We want to partner with every one of them who are willing to partner with us – to identify what we could do to better make their neighborhood’s quality of life better, to identify the relatively small number of bad guys that we need to take out so the rest of the folks can enjoy their neighborhood and their families.”
Concerned citizens may anonymously report those who commit piracy and counterfeiting by calling Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 222-TIPS.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
