Piracy in Chile

The following are all true stories about piracy in Chile:

A young man was at the home of our colleagues here in Chile. At some point he noticed an original dvd they had on hand. He said, "Is this a real dvd? I have never seen a real one before." He was 18 years old and he wasn't saying he had never watched a movie! He was just surprised because he'd never seen one that wasn't a pirated copy of an original before.

During their first year in Chilean school, our girls had a "movie day" in class. They came home excited about the animated film they had seen. There was only one thing I couldn't understand ... that movie was still out in theaters!

At the Zofri mall in Iquique, you can purchase Wii consoles and games. You even get a choice to buy the console "blocked" or "unblocked." The latter is a little bit extra, but it means you can buy and use all the pirated Wii games you could ever want.

The mother of my daughter's classmate told me, "If only Wii games weren't so expensive, we wouldn't buy pirated copies. But they're just ridiculous, so really, you have no other choice!"

All that to say, I wasn't too surprised when I ran across this article the other day. Translated, its title reads "USA: Denounces ChileComparte (ChileShares) as principal site of Chilean piracy and demands stricter measures." The article cites the International Intellectual Property Alliance and their February 15 report which elevated Chile to their "Special 301 Priority Watch List" in 2011.

Piracy may be the news of the day, but it really is nothing new! It is only one face of the dishonesty which seems to permeate our culture. "White lies" are so accepted here in Chile that no one even blinks when they say them or suggests that you should, too. Daily we are reminded of the need to breathe Truth into our lives and relationships. How thankful we are that we have God's Word to guide us, for "... your word is truth" Christ promised! (John 17:17)