Medosch argues that: “piracy, despite being an entirely commercially motivated activity carried out in black or grey markets, fulfills culturally important functions” (Reader, page 318), give an example online.
I agree with Medosch’s argument that the word ‘piracy’ is not all the time stand for bad morality, sometimes, and especially for those people who live in the third world, ‘piracy’ means the only way to access to other cultures, or in Medosch words, “fulfills culturally important functions” (2008:81).
Medosch argues that historically, piracy has developed in South East Asia when “colonial powers created a monopoly or oligopoly which robbed people of their livelihoods and left them no other chance” (2008:80), and Medosch further explains that contemporary principle of piracy is quite similar with the old sense, since “large media corporations stifle local cultural productions by completely taking over marketing and distribution channels”, therefore, for local media business, it’s very hard to survive under the pressure of large media monopoly the market, as a result, there are less local goods and cultural diverse produced (Medosch 2008:80), as we can see in today’s film market, there are full of Hollywood production, no matter in which region, except America, there are lack of local movie produced.
Anyways, back to piracy, Medosch found that in the East, “every major city has its pirate market” (2008:80), and as a citizen of Republic of China, I have to admit that Medosch’s statement is true. From my own experience, once I planned to buy some piracy DVDs in Beijing’s pirate market, I found that those piracy DVDs are all mystical disappeared, but after I asked the seller where I can purchase them, he took me to the back of his store, and told me that since the police always raid on them, they have to hide them appropriately, and waiting for customer enquire. There are definitely people who with “mortality” will criticize the person like me who support the piracy market, Medosch has argued for us that “piracy fulfils an important role by giving access to cultural goods which otherwise would be completely unavailable to the vast majority of people” (2008:81).
The film which is directed by He JianJun supported Medosch’s argument effectively. Art movie is prohibited by Chinese government since they considered it relates to pornography and not appropriate for under age people to watch, the scene the seller argued with the policeman whether the movie In the Realm of the Senses is pornography or not demonstrates people desire to access other cultures freely rather than the law allow them to access. Another example Medosch addresses in his article is in Brazil’s favelas, the only way for slum-dwellers to access to modern communication technologies is to go to “LAN houses”, use black market computers and pirated software to achieve their “civil rights and get better chance on the labor market” (2008:82).
Overall, there is not all bad aspects of piracy, despite n there are people use it to make commercial profits, and make thousands of people lose their jobs, but there are still aspects we can consider it is “good”, especially when “it gives people access to information and cultural goods they had otherwise no chance of obtaining” (Medosch 2008:81).
Bibliography:
Armin Medosch, ‘Paid in Full: Copyright, Piracy and the Real Currency of Cultural Production’, in Deptforth. TV Diaries II: Pirate Strategies, London: Deptforth TV, 2008, pp.73-97.
Henry, “Pirated Copy by He Jianjun” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuNsMzSZVE4 accessed 30 May 2011, dated 14 Mar 2010.
Xi Chen (Tracy) 