Piracy in my Brazilian childhood
Since X became the Babel Tower backyards (yes, I'm still there. Crucify me) I have seen a lot of discussion about piracy. Manly Japanese saying something like, “But… But this is a crime! This is wrong!” and Latinos + Russians answering with “And?”
It’s actually funny. But this isn’t the focus of this post. I just wanted to share some memories about piracy.
From a young age I never had a official DVD, all pirated. I had VHSs, those I think,were “real”, and I know my dad had some CDs too. But the DVDs? I had Chaves (El Chavo del 8) episodes, 6 Barbie movies + I’m Barbie Girl (Kelly Key's version) playing in the menu and all new movies in pirated DVDs sold in plastic bags, of which ¼ didn’t work. Sometimes directly from the theater room.
Who needs the director's cut/commentary when I can have the public's reactions?
I have many funny stories about it. Like that one time, when I started to like anime and asked my dad to buy any he found. He bought me Vidas ao vento (2013) (The Wind Has Risen) I have great memories of how excited I was and how I thought it was sad and only watched it once. I should rewatch it.
We had a big box full of pirated DVDs, most is gone. With the internet, it was easier and cheaper to just watch it online. Some have resisted time, we keep some of my dad’s favorites CDs and DVDs, I don’t know where his Beatles CD is, but I keep his “Cassia Eller Ao Vivo” DVD in my room.
A funny thing about piracy in Brasil is what happened with Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad). Somehow one of the early cuts of the movie was leaked and distributed illegally in the entire country. The media covered it so extensively the movie became a hit before it even premiered. Apparently it was very different from the final product because the movie was edited maybe ten other times after the leaked cut, so it wasn’t a complete lost.
Another form of piracy is fake products. How many fake Hot Wheels and Power Rangers did I have? How many badly printed shirts of Marie and Pokémon did I wear? Too many. I remember a lot of media coverage about how many of these fake products used not approved materials and were harmful to kids. Little plastic car painted with lead.
Actually, for some time my dad “worked” as a “muanbeiro.” What is a muanbeiro, you ask? Someone “works” buying and selling pirated, illicit, or fake products, usually from Paraguay, a very normal practice in the 80s and 90s in Brasil. Don’t worry about my dad, It was a long time ago when he was young and stupid. His lore is always crazy like that, he lived a lot before I was born. He said he used to bring a lot of electronics, consoles, and games from the other side of the border.
Well, I told you that at some point I had started to like anime, right? I remember my first site to watch pirated anime, animesonline.cc. It was all white, and I could only favorite 50 anime. It was slow, it was bad, it had an awful design, it was perfect to me. Sadly it was shut down 2 years later, R.I.P. AnimesOnline, the place where I watched Naruto, Dragon Ball, Chobits, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Sword Art Online, and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia. Piracy of anime was a art. Bad quality episodes, subtitles with notes at the top of the screen explaining concepts. In old times, episodes were posted in 4 or 5 parts on YouTube. What a time!
Another thing I pirated a lot was books and games. Minecraft, Stardew Valley, all the Pokémon games I played were pirated. I actually bought the first two, but Pokémon? All emulated to this day. Books are a different thing, Brazilians have a moral code: “Do not pirate national and indie books.” Anything else is a free game.
A lot of people think piracy is theft. A lot of times it is a question of accessibility and preservation. If theaters were more affordable, my dad would have taken us to them. We would buy the DVDs and CDs, I would not download e-pubs and game ROMs. Brasil has a big accessibility problem, everything is expensive. Especially because of the dollar, we’re in a 1 to 5 difference, 10 dollars game becomes a 50 reais game. It's ridiculous. God bless indie developers who implement power parity.
That is it. Pirate if you need, buy if you can. And remember, never share your sources online.
Hum… I think I just confessed a crime…
Hum… If I get a conscience, I’ll censor some of it later.
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