I was just surfing around the Internet, following links to links to more links, and look what I came across! Very Malaysia Boleh! The costs are phenomenal and almost scary! But this article is dated 1999, if I'm not mistaken.

Because of that article, I decided to check on why the costs are so great. That's when I came across this interesting bit of news and now I'm wondering what went wrong. If steps are taken to cut down costs, why then do we still have the problem of piracy? Then I came across this article on the costs that go into an audio CD and the numbers are scary too.

While I was in the US, my American friends told me that when audio CDs first came out, they costs about USD45 per CD as well, very similar to our MYR45 per CD. But somehow, the Americans managed to cut their costs down to USD14 per CD. I'm not quite sure how they did it, but I think it had to do with the technology and the manufacturing costs of the CDs themselves. They actually came to an agreement which the singers, producers, manufacturers and the consumers could be happy with.

When I came home, I brought this matter up to my father. After years of fighting for it, he managed to get our government to agree that our local CDs should cost less than the imported CDs. The price of the local CDs came down to MYR22 per CD. Most producers got around this by introducing the 2-in-1 concept, leaving the CDs at the original price of MYR45 thereabouts.

So, regardless of what went wrong or who is to blame, my answer to this is simple. I'm human. That's my reason and that's my excuse. If you give me options, I'm not ashamed to admit that I will pick the cheaper one, leaving me with more money to buy other things. I will not think twice to pay for an orginal CD or DVD if it is something I really want. My Angel collection is all original. I just bought the original Moulin Rouge DVD. 99% of my music collection are original CDs. The 1% are copies I got off my friends.

What I won't do is justify my actions by saying I'm trying to fight the system. The system does not even know I exist! For that matter, what system?! How do we fight what we cannot even begin to comprehend?

So let's be honest. It's all a matter of finance. Give anyone the cheaper opinion and an idiot will go for it. We're all idiots if seen on the scale of things. Why deny it? I'm a sucker for a good bargain so I won't lie to you.

Besides, think about this: Where did the Malaysian pirates get the materials in the first place? Where did they copy the movies from? Where did those copies come from? It's all business, the effects of capitalism. Just because it bites you back in the butt is no excuse to blame one country.

With that in mind, I like this article.