Over the last few years, Belizean movie lovers have been spoilt by the easy availability and low cost of "DVD burns,” high quality duplicates of original DVD's sold for half the price.
Recently, those burns have been selling for as little as $12 to $15 dollars and no one has been happier about it than the Belizean consumer happy for what has been a virtual free ride in what seemed to be a victim-less crime. But, now a victim has appeared in the form of Princess Hotel and Casino, the owner of Belize's only movie theatre.
Princess claims it has been suffering because the DVD stores get black market Hollywood releases before it does and sells them so inexpensively that by the time the movie reaches the theatre, which is sometime after, no one wants to see it. So now, Princess, which claims to be the rights-holder for certain films, has threatened to sue at least one major DVD supplier.
That has caused a worrying ripple across the DVD industry and Keith Swift found out that it means major changes for those of you spoilt by those cheap DVD's.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The sign says it all to customers: A&R is getting out of the CD and DVD business and they are taking those cheap new releases with them sending many customers searching for bargain prices and good quality.
Jose Zetina, A&R Customer
“$10 for a CD that’s a good price. You get it for $10.”
KS: Will you miss A&R, you know that you will no longer be able to buy CDs and DVDs here.
Jose Zetina,
“Probably because I don’t know when they will have another sale on DVDs and CDs.”
KS: You know it’s a sale and they are going to stop selling CDs and DVDs. Are you going to miss them?
Elva Logan, A&R Customer
“Yes.”
KS: Where will you go and get your CDs and DVDs from now?
Elva Logan,
“Well I will have to go to Venus or DJ Tambran. But in here is good for the CDs them to buy.”
But not good enough, Aldo Urbina, the A in A&R, says it was a business decision. But did they have a choice? This letter obtained by 7NEWS _from Princess Entertainment’s lawyer, Tania Moody demands that A&R “desist from the illegal sale of copied DVDs.” Moody quotes Chapter 252 of the Copyright law to back up her demand. Strong words which at the least flustered Urbina.
Aldo Urbina, A&R Store
“They sent me a latter asking us to desist, that’s the word I believed they said, from the sale of DVDs.”
KS: All DVDs or just the ones they are showing?
Aldo Urbina,
“They mentioned the Passion of the Christ and I believe Troy particularly which is funny. You know I did a few phone calls and I called the other companies that do this and they didn’t get any letter. Apparently, they had targeted us for some reason. I believe they believe we are the ones that are doing the biggest sales which we are not or at least I don’t think so.”
“That in a way had a little to do with it. Maybe it precipitated the process a little bit more but we were already in the process of letting go.”
KS: Had you not gotten the letter from the Princess would you still have stop selling them?
Aldo Urbina,
“Yes we would have. We were in the process of re-accessing everything on the CDs and DVDs because actually they are just dealing with the DVDs area. Which in I don’t know what their problem is because they don’t own the rights to any DVDs, they only own the right to show it in theatres. I don’t really want to elaborate on what their situation is but they don’t have anything to do with the CDs but we are going with the CDs and DVDs overall.”
“It played maybe a little role on us deciding to back away from it.”
So A&R bowed to the Princess and is moving on. In recent years, the threat of similar lawsuits has also sent Venus Photos and Records hightailing out of the market. Owner Polo Silva says it is just not worth it.
Leopold Silva, Venus Photos and Records
“We decided to get out of that because of all the hassles with different people claiming to own this and to own that we don’t need hassling. We’ve been in business 22 years and we don’t want to get into businesses that are hassles. We like to do things the proper way.”
KS: So Venus stopped for basically the same reason as A&R?
Leopold Silva,
“We could say basically for the same reasons. There is a law in place now and we decided to just separate ourselves from that sort of business.”
Two big giants are out, at least on paper and a young upstart, CD Plus which mass manufactures duplicates of CDs, DVDs, and video games which says they are also on their way out. Naim El-Amin says by year’s end he hopes to join Venus and A&R in the post CD pirating world.
Naim El-Amin, CD Plus
“Eventually we will go into everything and you know eventually everybody will have to stop doing the copying; at least all the major businesses them. But at least for the rest of the year we will be in it but next year more than likely we will stop. We will be going into so many other products so we will always keep our customers happy.”
KS: _Have you guys been threatened or warned yet?
Naim El-Amin,
“No we haven’t but like I said we going to get out of it soon as well so we just trying to be pro-active, we will be out of it by next year. So what I will advise all Belizeans is to just make use of that time because after that you don’t know what will happen?”
But what will happen? Will you no longer be able to get that new DVD for $15 or the new CD release for $8? Well, all agree that once there is a demand, there will be a supply.
Naim El-Amin,
“The street vendors will always be selling it. It is just the major businesses you won’t be able to go into and buy a copy DVD after the next two or three years.”
Leopold Silva,
“So I wouldn’t say that Belizeans will be out of options. I don’t think so. I think that business will always be there. Once there is a demand, someone will fill the demand. So if A&R gets out of it, Venus gets out of it, then there are many places around and if you walk around you will find them.”
And you don’t have to look far. Sure you won’t be able to get it inside of stores but there is always the outside.
And as a footnote, we should explain that while Venus is out of the business, its affiliate, King’s Music which shares store space with Venus is in the thick of it. In fact, Kings, which shows no signs of letting up seems to be emerging as the industry leader. Silva says eventually Kings will take over the Albert and Bishop street location completely and Venus will relocate.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift