And in news that effects me: The Ukranian parliment just passed a bill to make stop all the DVD, CD and program pirating in Ukraine. Ukraine is number 2 in pirating in the world, behind China. If I want a DVD of a movie--even one still in the theatres--I walk down to the bazaar and buy it for $4. If I don't mind it being dubbed in Russian, then I can buy one of the 6-in-1 DVDs. I recently bought a DVD with Madagascar, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Star Wars III and a Russian film for $4. I also bought the first season of "Lost" for the same price.
DVDs are a little more pricey than MP3 CDs, on which I can buy, say, every album ever made by by Prodigy for $2.50. MP3 DVDs cost $4 and have about 3,000 songs from a genre, say techno. Having both little respect for intellectual property laws and a laptop, this has always been one of the great perks of living in Ukraine. Apparently, no more. I mean, the street side vendors will no doubt carry them, but the huge markets at the bazaars and, more particularly, Patrivka (the dozens of blocks long black market of media in Kyiv where you can buy ANYTHING that can be burned onto optical media) will be shut down. Why is Ukraine caring about this business that brings entertainment to its people when they could never afford a full-priced DVD or CD?
Because thanks to pushing the bill through, the United States has just lifted the 100% import tarriffs they slapped on 75 billion dollars worth of goods from Ukraine to punish the country for not respecting intellectual property laws.
Now, I can see being ethical and all, but do you think that it was the principal of that matter that caused the US to punish Ukraine to the tune of 75 billion dollars? Or do you think it was film and music industry lobbies pressuring the government? Because, let's think about this for a second: what does the loss of legitimate sales of overpriced media in second world countries do to America's GDP? And what does the loss of being able to export 75 billion dollars worth of goods mean to Ukraine's GDP? Which is why Parliment made the bill. But do you think the American people were so feeling the burn of Ukraine's burning that they were clamouring for these tarrifs to be put in place?
I just think the U.S. surely has better things to worry about. Right? Right? That, and it's now harder to find my $4 DVDs.