Ordinary Gweilo

Phil has commented on Hans Ebert’s letter in yesterday’s South China Morning Post. I thought this was a typically self-serving music biz response. After raising valid (but familiar) questions about the Harbour Fest fiasco, Mr Ebert goes on to suggest that the government would be better off spending HK$100m fighting piracy of CDs, DVDs and VCDs. Well, I’m afraid I have to disagree with that. What possible benefit is there for Hong Kong in assisting large international companies in this way?

Of all the things that are wrong in Hong Kong today, hawkers selling pirated CDs must be one of the least serious. No one gets hurt as a result of people buying these discs, and the obvious thing for the industry to do is reduce the prices they charge, which would benefit everyone. The large entertainment companies could also tell the government that they made a mistake when they lobbied so hard for protection against parallel imports, and ask for this law to be relaxed. As far as I am aware, it is much against the law to sell a pirated DVD in Hong Kong as it is to sell a DVD that was legally produced for distribution in another country. That’s ridiculous, and demonstrates how little the large companies care about their customers.

If customers had a wider choice of legitimate products at reasonable prices they would have no reason to buy from hawkers, and until that is the case the government is very unlikely to win the war against piracy.