Traditionally, the Pakistani economy has been based in agriculture, so I was surprised to learn that Pakistan has made a leap into the new economy. Pakistan is now one of the top 10 sources of pirated recordings and movies. The quality of the material and the packaging is apparently as good as the original source, and (according to the International Federation for Phonographic Industries) "illegal replication facilities in Pakistan were doubling their copying capacity every 18 months"
Here's how it all breaks down:
- Pakistan produces over 230 million priate CDs annually
- 25 million of those disks are for the local market, the rest go abroad to Dubai, Nepal and India and from there, all over the world.
- Pakistan exports at least 13 million disks monthly (back of the envelope calculations indicate this should be at least 17 million, so I don't know why the BBC says 13 million)
- These disks sell for $1 in Pakistan (less for orders of more than 10) and $10 elsewhere.
- Profit margins on pirated CDs / DVDs are four to five times the cost
- The recording industry tells us that the annual cost to copyright holders is at least $2.7bn
[Source: Pakistan - copyright piracy hub (BBC)]
This is a serious problem for the recording industry:
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has published a report claiming that 35% of all CDs sold around the world are illegal copies that's 1.1 billion pirate disks..
...Clearly the biggest threat to the record industry today is not P2P networks but the more traditional CD copying seen in the the IFPI's ten priority countries where anti-piracy offensives are most needed
These aren't just copies of Hollywood blockbusters, South Asian IP is ripped off as well. When a young man from Karachi bought EMI Pakistan (the largest music archive in the country, with exclusive rights to over 150,000 songs and other compilations) from EMI, he was forced out of business in two years. That latest Bollywood blockbuster that you picked up in mirchmasala alley in Edison may also be from a Pakistani production facility.
"Dutch police have uncovered more than 140,000 pirated CDs and DVDs of popular Indian films and music in a string of simultaneous raids in Rotterdam."
From the American perspective, this is a great opportunity. Music and movies are going to be pirated anyway, but if Pakistanis can make more money on CDs than drugs or people smuggling, then perhaps the US can turn this into an opening in the war on drugs. Less heroin on the streets and 50 cent CDs for $0.50. What's not to like about this scenario?
