Piracy, Promotions & Prison: Is it worth that much to get paid?

I am the first to say how much I love street vendors, especially my book vendors. Book vendors go the extra mile to get books on the street. There are lots of vendors who sell everything from body oils, hats, and t-shirts, etc. You name it and a street vendor got it somewhere in America.

When DVD’s first became popular, my brother showed me my first illegal DVD. I can’t remember the name of the movie, but the person who recorded the movie apparently had a handheld digi-cam. The screen shook the hold time that I tried to watch the story unfold. After rubbing my eyes and shaking my head, I finally asked my brother where he got such a bad copy of the movie and that he should get his money back. He told me that it was an illegal copy and with the dirty DVD’s you never know what you’re getting.

That was at least 10 years ago. During that time I was seriously writing screenplays and wondering how much money writers were losing when people purchased “pirated” movies. Whenever I would be in the presence of my brother and he would tell me of a new movie he purchased from a vendor, I would tell him, “You’re killing my royalties. Every time you buy a dirty DVD, you’re inviting the likelihood that someone is going to cheat me out of my movie rights.” He would just look at me like I was crazy. But was I?

10 years ago I was focused on writers making money, black actors and black producers making money off of their product. As hard as I know it is to get a black movie done, I was pissed off every time I saw ANYBODY pushing an illegal DVD. I really believed that dirty DVDs hurt the black artistic community MORE than anybody else. Now, in 2006, I’m still supporting the black artistic community but I work very closely with street vendors. So much, in fact, that a vendor that I was scheduled to work with was recently jailed for selling pirated DVDs. Whoa!

Unbeknownst to me, there is a nationwide crackdown on illegal DVDs. Furthermore, being convicted of selling pirated DVD’s now can have felony charges attached to it. Yes, felony charges over a MOVIE. People with priors can jeopardize their probation and their freedom for infringing on the copyright of these DVDs. Is it worth it? I don’t think so.

I like a sale as much as the next person but I think we should let our vendors know (if they don’t already) of the real threat of going to prison for selling pirated DVDs. For the people who want to continue to buy DVDs on a discount I have two suggestions: 1) Go to Wal-Mart and 2) Buy a book instead. If you are encouraging your vendor to get you the next Tyler Perry movie before it hits the theaters, you are a traitor to the very art form that you “so-called support” and you need to realize that black men don’t need to be encouraged to engage in behavior that could send them to prison. Despite media hype, their lives are worth so much more than that.

Question: If you buy dirty DVDs, will you stop now that you know that people are going to prison?