There are many things I want to say about this recent shove they are giving the world, attempting to plunge it into darkness. I could go on and on about SOPA and ACTA. I could go on and on about the hypocrites and royal pricks who should burn in hell for wanting to turn us all into lesser people they can rule more easily over. If they don't mind letting people in poor countries suffer and die slowly, just because they won't let go of some of their money, they will have no problem taking our internet away.
But talking about these things we all know and feel is not necessary. As for information, I don't think I need to give much. Chances are, if you are an Asian entertainment fan, that you know what is going on already. It's a sad sad thing.
Fileserve has now joined the sites which are no longer filesharing ones.
This is a dire matter for fans. Asian entertainment is not force-fed to us like Hollywood is. We don't get Asian movies and series in video renting stores, we can't watch them in cinemas. The only way we can know if we like something enough to buy it, the only way by which we can watch it and find out if it's worth our money (as we CAN do with Hollywood productions) is by downloading it first.
Pretty soon, we won't have that luxury anymore and will therefore not be able to take the risk and go shopping blind. We will no longer be able to keep our contact with Asian entertainment, or any other kind of entertainment which isn't Hollywood. A bunch of rich pigs will control what people see and when.
Companies have been bitching and moaning about piracy and how it causes losses for them. Go tell that to a 3-year-old, because adult human beings with functioning brains don't buy your crap. Companies get way more because of piracy than the "losses" they suffer. People buy the DVDs, CDs, merchandise, tickets to visit places and countries they see in the works, even the damn make up that us used in a show.
If they had the brains and willingness to make their products available online, for a reasonable price, where people can watch and then buy, we'd all be happy. And don't talk to me about certain "US only" websites which do offer that. Thanks, but there is a continent between Asia and the US called Europe. You might have heard of it. Some of us live here and some of us may as well not exist, in the eyes of Asian entertainment and sometimes even Hollywood. If they made the works available for all or the DVDs available and functional worldwide and if they changed the video standards so that we don't loose half the screen when playing an Asian DVD on a European television (on a crappy region-free DVD player), we'd be more than happy.
But Hollywood is one hungry little bitch. And the CEOs of all these "poor and wronged" companies are very greedy cunts. They're not about to let anyone else ruin their monopoly. A few years back, they ordered Korea to increase the time they show Hollywood movies in cinemas and severely cut the time their own movies get. People protested about it and they were right too.
So, if they threaten/close all the means by which any user in the world can access that entertainment, they can peddle their crap to us without anyone cutting in.
If they succeed, we will no longer be able to enjoy Asian entertainment. An entire fanbase of anime, dramas, movies, variety shows, asian pop and even the fans of the countries themselves, who got to know them through their entertainment, will be left with no means of reaching the industries we love. And no person of an average income can afford to pay 80 euros for a movie and its postage, when they don't even know if it's worth it.
I sincerely hope that people will rise against them, but I also believe people tend to forget a cause when it's out of fashion. A lot of them want to join the mob and yell, but they lose interest when it's no longer "cool". I see what happened in my own country. Our government has betrayed us in the worst of ways, we yelled, we screamed and then people got bored. Young people didn't find it "exciting" anymore and stopped. I stopped too, because the whole world is against us and no one even bats an eyelid when it comes to our woes.
Do you know the (inaccurate) anecdote of the boiling frog? If you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. If you put it in cold water and warm it slowly, it will sit there and boil to death. This is not a lesson on how to make frog-soup. This is a lesson about human nature. When our rights are openly and suddenly violated, we lash out. When the danger is obvious and imminent, we see it. But we're also very absorbed in our routine, fear and denial. No matter how dire an issue, if it happens slowly and gradually, we allow it to happen.
I most fervently wish that I am wrong about this. That people will fight this like mad, that we'll join hands and crush these corporate dictators, these fascists with our sheer numbers and will. But I do not have such an optimistic view of the world. I can only hope and worry.
These are my thoughts on this issue, my fears, my disappointment. There's rough times ahead. Let's all hope for the best and keep fighting as long and as far as our strength carries us.
