Shiver me timbers! Yangon police make pirated goods walk off the plank

Shiver me timbers! Yangon police make pirated goods walk off the plank

By Nuam Bawi   |   Sunday, 11 August 2013

Governmetn attempts to combat media piracy is nothing new in Myanmar, but until recently the focus was on small-time sellers such as street vendors and shops.

That's changing this month, police say, now that enforcers are getting around to checking supermarkets as well.

"We have been confiscating pirated goods for a long time now," Kyauktada township police chief U Myo Myint Kyaing told The Myanmar Times. "It's been a slow and methodical process. We are not just targeting supermarkets. This is the law that we enforcing."

After police recently made their first seizure of pirated goods from supermarkets across the Yangon area early this month, word spread quickly among the major chains that foreign titles could no longer be safely displayed.

"We heard the news that the police are seizing pirated foreign music and movies from supermarkets," said a saleswoman from Yangon's Ruby Mart. "So our manager ordered us to remove them. We started pulling foreign CDs, VCDs and DVDs from the shelves on August 2."

She said the retail chain has temporarily pulled stock before when police were seizing uncensored foreign movies, but now that music is being targeted as well, stores will face a loss in revenue.

"Foreign music and movies are the bestselling products for us. [Bootlegged material represents] over half of the total amount of income from music and movies, as those are cheap and the public can enjoy new songs and movies at cheap prices."

On August 2, the Myanmar Music Association distanced itself from the move, stating it is not involved in the seizure of pirated discs imported from other countries.

"When police confiscate pirated foreign CDs, VCDs and DVDs, people may think it's because of either the Myanmar Music Association or the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization," said U Thar Soe, secretary of the MMA's Copyright Maintenance Committee.

"Those cases [of pirated foreign media] have nothing to do with us. It is only to do with the law of the Ministry of Information."

While he added that obeying the law "is the duty of every citizen in the country." U Thar Soe added that while committee members themselves are not looking to confiscate foreign media, they are happy to pay for them just like most everyone else.

"We are not interested in confiscating foreign pirated imports. We are even buying and watching those movies.

"In other countries, they only protect their local products. They are not really concerned about imported contraband goods. We are now only acting to protect our local CDs, VCDs and DVDs."

But you can't trawl for tuna without netting a few dolphins, and according to U Thar Soe the haul of illegal foreign goods often includes bootleg Myanmar media as well.

"When they catch pirated [foreign] CDs many local pirated [discs] are seized as well, as most of the sellers of pirated goods are selling both foreign and Myanmar movies."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/shiver-me-timbers-yangon-police-make-pirated-goods-walk-off-the-plank/