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04 November 2003

Where is Jessica Zafra?

I find it superbly interesting the way in which corporations attempt to transfer the burden of one of their most fundamental business risks to their customers and it appears I'm not the only one. Let me explain...

It was ridiculously early on a Sunday morning when I found myself trawling the web for someone by the name of Jessica Zafra. I had no idea who she was, or what she did, but I found the following excerpt in a Usenet post which came from something she penned entitled, "An Opinion On Piracy". The article rather nicely explains how I feel about the whole piracy deal and is reproduced, in part, below:
"Does anyone else find it funny that people who make
much more money than we do are appealing to us not
to deprive them of their income? You have the nerve
to charge me P450 for a CD that is being sold on the
street for P60 and you expect my sympathy?

The campaign against pirated software, CD's, VCD's,
audio and cassettes, would have us believe that
piracy is our problem. Really? How is shelling out
P100 for a disc that contains P50,000 worth of
software a problem for me? It would seem that the
pirates are doing me, and my shrinking wallet a big
favor. Why should it bother me that a movie which
has not yet opened in theatres is being
peddled on VCD on the streets for P90? I have no
fights with the pirates. They are selling me
information I might otherwise not have access to
because of prohibitive costs. Yes they are thieves
and thieves should be punished, but they are not
stealing from me. Oh sure, you can lecture me about
in the long run I will pay for buying bootleg but by
then I will have used the information for my
benefit.

So let me make a correction. Piracy is the problem
of the manufacturers - the software houses, record
companies, and motion picture companies - whom I
shall refer to from hereon as the corporations. By
telling us not to buy pirated materials "for the
good of everyone", corporations make it appear that
corporate interests and the public interest are the
same thing. This is unlaughably untrue. Corporations
makes noise about working in the public interest -
these noises are called public relations, PR - but
their duty is to their owners."
Everything wants to be free. If this wasn't the case, corporations wouldn't need to go to such extreme lengths to make it not so.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

----
Rheims on Jessica Zafra's Thought on Piracy
----

"Why should it bother me that a movie which has not yet opened in Metro Manila theatres is being peddled on VCD on Ayala Avenue for P90? I have no fights with the pirates. They are selling me information I might otherwise not have access to because of prohibitive costs. Yes they are thieves and thieves should be punished, [but these thieves] are not stealing from ME." - Jessica Zafra

The problem with the Philippines today is that there are too many selfish under-educated assholes that think they are smart. I just hope these smart-asses’ asshole, like Nasty's (previous CAFA87 topics) and Jessica Zafra's assholes are good for other use, other than what it is intended for. Forgive my language.

Jessica, if you buy pirated products, you are actually doing illegal business. Therefore, the Philippine Government does not receive any tax revenues from it and thereby making your country poor. If that is the case, you don't even have the right to transact business or even stay in that country to use its facilities such as roads, power etc. Ever wonder why the state of the Philippines is so bad? Pirates are smugglers and thieves. Both are called criminals. Historically, Piracy is punishable by death during the 16th century England. Worse is that piracy disrupts the growth of a nation's market economy.

"Render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's"... BTW! Jessica Zafra, Ceasar is a billionaire in his time, why do I need to give him my remaining cents for tax? Does that mean it would not bother him if I don’t give him back .0000000000000(add more zeroes)001 of what is due to him? But think again... I reckoned that these words are the command of the Most High Living GOD. Oh, I forgot, maybe you are an atheist and these words don't apply to you.

Nowadays Jessica, you are a Filipino patriot when you pay your taxes even if you know there are many corruptions going on. It's not cheap to eradicate government graft and corruption you know. If you can't buy original copies, it means you are not earning enough. So get your butt out of my native land and work somewhere else outside of it. Then you don’t need to pay tax in Philippines.

Rheims Soliven
10 Sept 2003

http://scribbly-dibbles.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_scribbly-dibbles_archive.html
http://home.cfl.rr.com/rheims/writings/Piracy.htm