Carolina Botero and "piracy"

Carolina Botero sobre la "piratería", FLACSO Quito, Ecuador, 18 de octubre del 2011, 2.31 pm.

Carolina what can you tell us about the warning that appears at the beginning of movies, which reads that piracy is comparable

to robbery or murder? There are a lot of people that are shocked by this, and some people might think

that both are felonies, but to go as far as comparing them in the same way...? No I definetely don't agree with this; it is just

impossible to compare the two of them, because their mechanics of circulation are different.You can't compare the

spread of knowledge, to the idea of robbery or murder. It definitely can't be compared to murder,

I think we have to discard this idea, we don't even need to explain further. In the case of robbery, which it is a very common felony, it is just not the same

because it is about belongings or tangible property. On one hand, It is like when I take something from you. if I

take a chair from you, then you don't own the chair anymore. On the other hand, when we talk about intangible

property, the ability to re-produce is part of its nature; it is not the same because

it means that when I take a verse from you, you still have it. Even if I share a verse

[from a poem] with others - it isn't like I know too many- it is not the same. There is a verse from a Colombian poet that died not long

ago who worked on children's poems and he had a really easy verse, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, yes my

sun yes. He shared it with me, I wrote it down and after that I shared it with you, now the three of us have it,

and now all of us have it, you learned it too, and that's it. It is not like I am going to steal the

verse from him, we can't make that comparison. Piracy is a felony, and there is a legitimate property

right behind it, it is true, but it is not comparable and I think we need a more profund discussion

about economic and social issues, so we can keep supporting a mechanism of criminalization of this

kind of behaviour, that I am sure, when it reaches these lenghths, affects, not only the authors, but also their relationship with the public.

Ok, thanks Carolina