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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
Pirated Goods: A Fake For Every Desire
 Wire services
| | Mexicans are buying more pirated CDs and DVDs than legal versions, stripping millions of pesos away from businesses each year. |
It's easy to get lost at the Tepito marketplace, Mexico's largest collection of pirated goods and illegal merchandise. Semi-permanent booths form tight alleyways that stretch for what seems like miles and thousands of vendors hawk everything from pirated DVDs of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," to Adidas footwear with four stripes.
You can find nearly anything you can imagine in Tepito and at prices that are fractions of the originals: knockoff Calvin Klein jeans, dubbed copies of Eminem's new record, versions of the latest PlayStation 2 videogames, Microsoft Windows and Photoshop software, and DVDs by the thousands, including new releases that haven't left theaters yet.
Mexicans buy more illegal music, software and DVDs than legal versions, according to industry estimates, a trend that has accelerated in recent years with new dubbing technologies.
The buying and selling of counterfeit goods is a way of life in Mexico City, where an estimated 300,000 residents make their living selling fake and illegal CDs and movies.
They sell them in subway stations, in markets throughout the city and even on the steps leading to the Supreme Court. It is a city where taxis and even city buses can be counterfeit, painted to look like the real thing.
But the piracy epidemic reached new heights even by Mexico City standards earlier this month when officials warned of bootleg condoms and unlicensed mariachi bands.
The pirated condoms, with names like "El Cameleon" and "Vive"' pose an alarming health risk, authorities said, since they haven't undergone testing and aren't certified. They've turned up in massage parlors, nightclubs and even a few pharmacies, according to health workers.
FAKE MUSICIANS
The fake mariachis are only slightly less dangerous.
About 1,700 mariachis are licensed to play in Mexico City's famed Plaza Garibaldi, a traditional gathering spot for mariachi bands and tourists. But officials say another 800 musicians, lacking credentials, try to horn in on the Garibaldi action, especially on festival days.
Instead of playing a tune, some of these fake musicians are mugging and pick-pocketing unsuspecting tourists, officials say.
"The true musicians are here in the plaza," an indignant Sergio Olvera, secretary of the Mexican Union of Mariachis, told EL UNIVERSAL. "Those others don't even know how to play. We are families dedicated to mariachi." Most Mexicans accept the knockoffs as a way of life, making the problem difficult to solve, said Roberto Castañeda, president of the Alliance Against Piracy, an umbrella group of U.S. and Mexican companies.
"There is not a solid culture of respecting or protecting intellectual property," he said. "Our children are growing up thinking that it's normal to see these (sellers) operating freely and openly. It's a culture of 'I can do what I want and the authorities won't do anything to stop me.'" Castañeda says too many local governments tolerate and sometimes protect bootleggers.
Mexico is often ranked third behind China and Russia on worldwide lists of bootlegging. The reason is simple economics.
In a country where many workers earn US5 or US10 per day, it's unthinkable to shell out US15 for new CD or US30 for a legitimate DVD. Buying a fake copy for 10 pesos less than US1 is far more affordable, and in many cases easier given the vast number of vendors in the city.
Many vendors see selling such goods as one of the few options open to them in an economy without enough jobs to go around.
MUSIC INDUSTRY HIT HARD
The result has been devastating for big businesses and for legitimate Mexican vendors. Trade losses due to copyright piracy which does not include bootleg clothing, liquor or cigarettes reached US870 million in 2004, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Meanwhile, the Mexican Chamber of Commerce says the sale of pirated and stolen goods by street vendors strips established businesses of billions of pesos per year.
Bootleg CDs, which account for about 60 percent of music sold in Mexico, have had a damaging impact on Mexico's recording industry, forcing some labels to drop artists.
Ernesto D'Alessio, a popular singer and actor, announced earlier this month that he wouldn't record his next album because of piracy. He said he made the decision because he's sure "the bandits will pirate your material and sell it at a miserable price and, since we singers live off our sales, for the moment it's not worth it."
Industry executives are calling for more prosecutions, pointing out that while Mexican authorities seized 12.1 million copies of pirated movies, music and software last year, less than 1 percent of the raids resulted in convictions. Legislators are also studying a measure that would levy a stiff fine on buyers of counterfeit goods.
In Guadalajara, local officials have tried an approach reminiscent of attempts with coca farmers in Bolivia and Colombia: weaning vendors of their illegal stock and helping them convert to legal goods with discounts and loans.So far, the program hasn't taken off.
Next September, high school students will find antipirating messages in their classrooms, in an attempt to change hearts and minds of the next generation.
For Castañeda, the stakes go beyond the billions of dollars in lost profits.
"A society dominated by piracy can become one that doesn't produce its own culture," he said. "It can become a society that's not interested in creating, but in copying, and copying badly." |
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