Pirated Movies Is Big Business in Costa Rica
Movies like Shrek the Third that just opened in San José theatres Friday and like others recent releases are all available on the streets of San José in their "pirated" version, at a fraction of the cost of the original DVD and less than the cost of admittance to the theatre.

The illegal copying and selling of first run movies is out of control, officials say, who are also concerned that children are learning from their parents that buying pirated material is ok and normal.

The reason for the illegal copying is possibly that many do not want to wait for the movie to hit the theatres or wait for the importation of the original, which can be weeks to months behind their release in the United States.

In rare occasions, like the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean, the film was released on the same day as the U.S. release and the DVD's were in the stores.

Shrek the Third was released in the U.S. on May 18, but just yesterday did it make it onto the big screen in Costa Rica.

Illegal copies of the Shrek the Third DVD have been available for weeks and at a cost of between ¢1.000 and ¢2.000 colones (us$1.94 and us$3.88), depending on the location and the quality of the copy.

The cost of admittance to the Cinemark in Escazú, for instance, is ¢1.700 colones (us$ 3.29) for children, students, seniors and all matineés and ¢2.100 (us$4.07) for adults.

The cost of buying the original DVD online is us$39.99 at Amazon.com, plus the cost of shipping, sales tax and duty in Costa Rica.

Shrek the Third, like Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and other recent releases are all available on the streets of San José in an illegal form and though police have raided a number of retailers copying and selling the pirated DVDs, their actions are small compared to the size of the illegal market.

"The subject is a problem of price, the difference is substantial, and that is why we have a publicity campaign appealing to the conscience that buying pirated material is robbery", said Randall Salazar, of the Ministerio de Justicia (Ministry of Justice).

"Many now have home theatres, who want quality, however, end up buying pirated material, without their knowledge", said Salazar, who feels that stronger legislation is needed to combat the growing problem.

In general copied versions do not have the same picture and sound quality of the original, and do not contain the extras included in the original version, like language and subtitle choices, director's cut, commentary, etc. And in some cases, the quality of the copy and the disc used is so poor that it won't work and damages DVD players.

The problem has reached at such a level that in Mall San Pedro, for instance, while the movie Shrek the Third is playing in the mall's theatres, pirated copies can be purchased at retails stores in the mall.

"The Ministerio de Hacienda (Revenue Ministry) has measures to control the borders to confiscate imported products, however, the majority of the pirated material is produced nationally", said Salazar.

Costa Rica is one of the leaders in Latin America for pirated material, according to a report by the Alianza Internacional de Propiedad Intelectual.

The  International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) places Costa Rica in 3rd place on its "watch list" for the Americas, behind countries like Mexico, Canada and Colombia, for total losses in 2006 due to piracy. Countries like Argentina, Chile and Venezuela are on the "priority watch list".

The pirated material in the losses include business software, records and music, motion pictures, entertainment software and books.

The IIIPA is a private sector coalition formed in 1984 to represent the U.S. copyright-based industries in bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve international protection of copyrighted materials.