By Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore explains what most of us probably know about piracy in Korea.
Paramount carefully crafted its theatrical bows to reflect individual country’s attitudes toward piracy.As Moore noted, one of the countries that has the least amount of piracy is Japan. “There is a very low social acceptability in Japan for stealing copyrighted work — you just don’t see movies showing up online right away there,” he said. So with that in mind, Paramount is holding back the release of ”Iron Man 2″ in Japan for several weeks, having little fear about the country being swamped with bootleg copies of the film.
However, when it comes to Korea, it’s a different story. “For better or worse, there are certain countries — notably like Korea — where it’s culturally acceptable to download movies online pretty much right away,” said Moore. “By the third week of a movie’s release, you’re starting to see a large part of the audience who will start consuming the film online. It’s why Korea has almost no home video business anymore.”
So Paramount knew it couldn’t afford to wait. It released “Iron Man 2″ in Korea this weekend — and is hoping for the best. “There are still some countries that don’t respect the rights of intellectual property,” said Moore. “So we’re working aggressively with them to address those issues. But it means that when we open a big new film, we have to really understand the country’s cultural attitudes when it comes to formulating our release dates.” [Los Angeles Times]
Do you think the Korean Government should police piracy, or should it be the responsibility of the recording studios to infuse technology that protects their intellectual property?
10:12 pm on May 4th, 2010 1
As to the question, I think both. ROK Govt has the muscle to stop this after its done and the movie industry has the technology (or at least incentive) to make copying more difficult.
Another point about Koreans and intellectual property issues. Yeah, they'll infringe on copyrighted stuff like crazy. But at least they're equal opportunity cheats. I don't know how many times I've walked into a Korean video store and seen a back room full of VCRs or DVD recorders cranking away copying a K-Drama.
10:32 pm on May 4th, 2010 2
As I wrote HERE, this guy misses the mark. For starters, a lot of Japanese do download illegally, so the prevalence of downloaders in Korea and the alleged dearth of them in Japan is almost certainly not the reason for the discrepancy in release dates.
Ultimately, the question is not why US films are (now) released so early in Korea, but rather why they're (usually) released so late in Japan. I'll bet the answer has very little to do with piracy, but the fact that movies are released so late in Japan means they get marketed much later in Japan and therefore the demand for online pirated versions is far lower and less likely to influence supply.
11:08 pm on May 4th, 2010 3
So let me try to understand this logic. The Paramount guy thinks South Koreans aren't going to pay them to watch this movie because they're thieves by nature, so he decides to show the movie first in South Korea? That makes total sense to me.
Why would you even want this movie first in South Korea, let alone show it a
11:13 pm on May 4th, 2010 4
Why would you even want to show this movie first in South Korea, let alone show it at all? Not that the fact that South Korea is one of the largest markets in Asia for Hollywood screenings, even rivaling Japan (despite Japan's population three times bigger), makes any difference.
11:49 pm on May 4th, 2010 5
A bit too close to the truth there TOM?
12:24 am on May 5th, 2010 6
The story is BS. The movie is being released late in Japan, not earlier in South Korea.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/releaseinfo
12:33 am on May 5th, 2010 7
Nah, they are creating the impression that people can wait to download it in order to create buzz and increase ticket sales. Nowadays, it's pretty much standard operating procedure for studios who are about to release movies like this one.
12:51 am on May 5th, 2010 8
Tom, I agree with you 100% on this one. Ironman 2 has been selling on the street for 6 months.
1:58 am on May 5th, 2010 9
If anybody is interested, here is a very brief and incomplete set of highlights from Tom's profile.
1. He is first generation Korean-American… but he had little interest in Korea or Korean language for most of his early life.
When he became a young adult, he rabidly embraced "Korean-ness", with the enthusiasm of a convert, to achieve a sense of identity unachievable in other ways.
2. He grew up lower-middle class in a primarily white area with few friends. His parents were hard-working but not highly educated.
3. He got picked on in school… a LOT… but, while he blames "racism", in an ego-defensive reaction, it was actually due to poor social skills and a need to gain attention through the shortcut of irritation.
If he thinks hard about it, he will remember other non-white students who were part of the in-crowd and who's race or ethnicity was no more of an issue than eye or hair color.
4. He is not stupid but he did not do well in school. His teachers noticed and commented on this… although his parents, for cultural and linguistic reasons, were powerless to assist or motivate him.
5. He dabbled in wannabe-gangs and soft drugs for a sense of identity and inclusiveness. These ventures ended in failure.
6. He is perpetually single and incapable of attracting a girl. He is too angry, aggressive and un-Korean for native Korean girls… yet lacks the extra "coolness" required by an American girl, of any race, to be attracted to an Asian man who is trying to act hyper-Asian.
7. He has a menial job with no real future. While he is not stupid, he is unskilled and has made no achievements in higher education.
8. Socially and financially, he feels betrayed by the American Dream and the fault is everyone's but his.
Korean nationalism and ethnocentrism are his only tools to promote the illusion of identity and personal value…
…yet, in his heart, he knows he would be an even bigger outsider if he were to live in Korea and try to be a real Korean. Having to deny this increases his bitterness.
Now for the analysis.
There are many, many, many other people with a very similar profile. Tom uses Korean nationalism as his crutch. Others gravitate toward radical Islam, white supremacy or going to Star Trek conventions dressed as a Klingon.
This disenchantment of the System sometimes leads to violence against it… as demonstrated by everyone from Timothy McVeigh to Army Major Nidal Hasan to John Allen Muhammad to Seung-Hui Cho.
Tom. Dude. Relax.
You are getting angrier and less coherent.
Look at it this way…
It became apparent that Korea was getting over their pettiness and past insecurity when poor-looking bars fashioned in 60s-style tin siding with hand-painted signs and rough wooden furniture became popular. When it became acceptable to flaunt that retro style, it was clear that many Koreans were proud enough of what-Korea-had-become… and what-Korea-had-been was understood to be a quaint and necessary part of national evolution rather than a shameful situation.
You need to understand that Korea can now proudly stand on its own merit without the need of a champion whining about every little perceived insult by someone who might have round eyes or white skin.
The cool kid doesn't say, "Am not!" when he is called stupid. The class spaz does.
Don't be the class spaz. Again.
3:09 am on May 5th, 2010 10
I know people in korea who pay to download movies. So I guess it would be possible to have a market for the major. But they are not ready to change theire the way they do busyness.
They are worried for the piracy of Ironman 2, but it’s again going to break records (eventhough it’s certainly a crapy movie)! I just can’t understand that they make more and more money every year, but they still come crying because people dl their movies.
People buy DVDs, Games, Music online, go the the Cinema more then ever.
The business model is just changing. Look at Hulu, or netflix.
4:02 am on May 5th, 2010 11
He got picked on in school… a LOT… but, while he blames “racism”, in an ego-defensive reaction, it was actually due to poor social skills and a need to gain attention through the shortcut of irritation.
So White kids making fun of "oh-ree-entals" in school and White adults mocking "oh-ree-entals" talking with things like "nyang nyang nyang" is not actually racism but the Korean-American or Asian-American kids just having poor social skills?
Hmm… You either have a brilliant theory there that completely turns responsibility for civil behavior on its head, or you're full of crap because you have no idea what visible minorities in the US typically go through, if not by at the hands of a majority of the majority then at least at the hands of a sizable minority of the majority.
5:25 am on May 5th, 2010 12
ha ha ha ha.. good one.
But who's angry? I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of Americans here which can be very amusing. I'm laughing at you guys, no offense.
5:33 am on May 5th, 2010 13
That’s why HWP almost disappeared. They had to do a whole “spend manwon” campaign to save it.
5:41 am on May 5th, 2010 14
This is a joke.
United States, Canada, EU, are all heavy downloaders of music, movies, video sharing.. oh my god, how can anyone have a straight face and tell me this is an unique Korean problem??
Wow. just wow….
Are you telling me Frostwire, Limewire, BitTorrents, on and on and on, where they all upload and download virtually anything and everything, are all Korean sites?
2008 article by LA Times – all of 64% of US college aged people have regularly downloaded illegal copies of movies and music..
only a fraction of them thought it was big deal..
When I was in New York, they were selling all kinds of copied DVD’s in stalls – they didn’t look exactly like Koreans to me..
10:15 am on May 5th, 2010 15
The movie studios don't get it. All the people who are willing to pay for their product are already doing so. The people who are unwilling to pay and pirate the product would still not pay for the product even if the Gestapo ran anti-copyright enforcement worldwide. The majority of people on this planet have a finite amount of money they can spend on entertainment and it does not matter how you enforce owner rights. This short-sighted ignorance is the reason the music industry almost went out of business.
The idiots can't even make products available to all the people who ARE willing to pay for them…. maybe they should work on that first.
Although Korea could be considered a special case: The only race on the planet that is both Greedy and Cheep at the same time.
10:59 am on May 5th, 2010 16
But at least we're not poor and bankrupt like you, and we can spell "cheap".
12:56 pm on May 5th, 2010 17
“Do you think the Korean Government should police piracy, or should it be the responsibility of the recording studios to infuse technology that protects their intellectual property?”
Well, let’s see. Should the Korean Government enforce the laws, or just let people think the laws don’t matter because they aren’t enforced? See also littering, being drunk / disorderly in public, selling bootleg DVD’s, and any number of driving and parking infractions?
1:26 pm on May 5th, 2010 18
In the vast scale of time, Korea is not poor or bankrupt, right now. We are talking very recently. Cool. Good for Korea. But I'd be careful about that high horse, it's a long way down. Any number of factors could destroy Korea's economy or at the very least lead to instability. For instance, Korea has done amazing things but your brothers to the north could undo most of that in a fortnight. It's ok to be proud but wishing bad fortune on the only country who has ever shown you true friendship is unwise.
1:29 pm on May 5th, 2010 19
"The people who are unwilling to pay and pirate the product would still not pay for the product even if the Gestapo ran anti-copyright enforcement worldwide."
Good point…although, they could retort that people can go out for a walk if they are bored and don't want to spend money.
3:31 pm on May 5th, 2010 20
Korea is on the way down.
Brazil, China, India, Vietnam, and once it gets it's act together, Thailand will make Korea a thing of the past.
Korea will keep Lonestaring away.
3:42 pm on May 5th, 2010 21
Yeah and we all know one minority group would never make fun of or discriminate against other minority groups. We all know for example that Korean-Americans would never make fun of say, African-Americans or other minorities.
Nope, no history of that at all. Maybe AA's had poor social skills?
Must be a white people thing I guess.
Yellow kids or yellow people would never do that to themselves or others. All those biracial Koreans can attest to that.
4:59 pm on May 5th, 2010 22
Sounds reasonable.
Maybe even “brilliant”! 
5:10 pm on May 5th, 2010 23
Who are you arguing against, JohnT? Did I ever make a claim that there is no racial or ethnic discrimination in Korea?
I do sometimes think you only care about the biracial kids because you think you can use it as a hammer agains the Koreans you so despise.
10:24 pm on May 5th, 2010 24
"So White kids making fun of “oh-ree-entals” in school and White adults mocking “oh-ree-entals” talking with things like “nyang nyang nyang” is not actually racism but the Korean-American or Asian-American kids just having poor social skills?"
I went through grade school with a handful of Asian kids and they caught flak. But so did the fat kids, skinny kids, the ones with glasses, etc. If you're going through the American school system you're going to get picked on if you're different. Racial animus is rarely the driving force. I'm as white as a jar of mayo and I got ripped on by classmates with the same intensity as the minorities. It just is what it is.
12:16 am on May 6th, 2010 25
kushibo,
I respect both your writing and thinking… and agree more often than not…
…but lately you have said a few things that I have to raise my eyebrows to.
This is one.
You, like many others, seem to be looking for a racism angle to explain every social injustice.
Crying racism is too often used as an excuse to continue incorrect actions and poor behavior.
Crying racism is the proud and lazy way out of self-critical introspection of one's personal and cultural flaws… and an honest evaluation of one's place in society… and what deep personal changes need to be made to fit in.
It is far easier to claim that people treat you badly because they somehow don't like your skin color than because you act strangely, dress comically and proudly display values that are alien or abhorrent to the members of society being accused of racism.
As was pointed out, large parts of schoolyard "racism" is mistaken identification of natural teasing over differences. You are short, you wear glasses, you are fat, you have slant eyes.
You sneakily failed to quote the rest of the idea I was suggesting.
"If he thinks hard about it, he will remember other non-white students who were part of the in-crowd and who’s race or ethnicity was no more of an issue than eye or hair color."
Now, can you think of any popular non-white students who were treated no differently than white students by other white students?
I can… and so can you.
Black, Mexican, Asian, an Iranian… they were my friends and classmates…. and they all had one common characteristic.
They acted like Americans.
They didn't define themselves by their race or the nationality of distant relatives. They didn't promote ethnocentrism or non-American nationalistic agendas. They hung out with people they liked rather than self-segregating with those of similar ethnic or national backgrounds. They didn't wear flags supporting a foreign country and they spoke English correctly.
They dressed like me, listened to the same music as me, shared the same dreams as me and plotted on the same girls as me. Why would race matter?
I propose there is a LOT less racism than many claim… and, for a variety of reasons, a lot of social conflict is shoehorned into the category of "racism" at every chance… which promotes more race-based separation rather than unification.
In the end, if some members of another race, from classmates to entertainers, are accepted as equal, perhaps "race" is not the real criteria being used to not like a group of people… and all the cries of "racism" ring false.
I hope this made sense. I banged this out pretty quickly and now I have to design and build some sequencing modules with 74xx and SSRs before tomorrow morning and I have no desire to go back and read this again.
5:21 pm on May 6th, 2010 26
IFSM 310?
3:25 am on May 7th, 2010 27
"IFSM 310?"
Naw.
One of my few regrets is that my degrees are in science rather than engineering. Since I don't give a shit about a control group, it turns out I am actually a mad engineer rather than a mad scientist at heart.
Whoodaguessed?
…although I'm thinking of going to a Korean university for a mechanical engineering degree next year or so… as my wife is pushing for it since she hates to see me slacking while she is busting her ass in law school and working full-time and on the board of directors for a medium-sized company and I am totally dorking off designing and building cool machines when I feel like it while my only continuing education is going to a hagwon once a week to get a needless GIA certification…
…and throwing parties a couple times a week to keep the necessary social life going… one just finished… so forgive me if I ramble on making absolutely no sense… being that it was a mak-koli and hong-tak/poe-sam party… and I am more than a little hammered.
Anyway, about the sequencers… my personal goal for the weekend is to have a new system built that allows me to turn some outside lights on and off using the trunk release on my car alarm remote.
It is one channel but I want more than one light to be controlled. That requires a sequence.
I made a receiver that picks up the signal, outputs a 12v pulse to a 4017 (I used 40xx instead of 74xx due to 12v though I generally like 74xx) which sequences through 3 solid state relays with the next output turning them all on through diodes followed by a reset to all-off.
It seems to be working OK today… but I learned long ago to play with stuff for a week on the bench before I take it off the breadboard, etch/engrave a board and permanently install it.
In other news, someone gave me a Nortel Networks BayStack 460-24T-PWR switch… can any of you IT guys out there think of a clever use for this thing in a home environment? I have 14 computers on my home network but everything works just fine with a consumer-grade router and $9 hub… ergo, this seems to be a solution without a problem… but, at a thousandish dollars, it's a shame to keep it on the rack without even being hooked up.
I hope this wasn't too rambling. I apologize if it was as I am seriously hammered. Be careful of old school Korean guys… they can drink!
10:03 pm on May 7th, 2010 28
kushibo,
I'm rather disappointed that you didn't offer a thoughtful reply to my more-detailed explanation.
I'm curious if my ideas makes sense… or if you can point out concepts in which you still believe I am "full of crap".
I don't necessarily expect you to agree… but I expect your reasons why to be reasonable and sensible rather than whiny emotion and wishful thinking-based logic…
…as is the norm when racism is discussed.
3:36 am on May 8th, 2010 29
I must have missed your response in the email queue. I've only been reading about half of the ROK Drop comments that come in.
This morning, I don't have time to respond, but I'll tell you off the bat that you are incorrect in thinking that I am "be looking for a racism angle to explain every social injustice."
Having grown up partly in Compton before moving to Orange County, I have seen which of my old neighborhood friends "made it" and which didn't, and while all probably faced some sort of bigotry or entrenched racism, the ones who didn't let it confine them or define them are the ones who made it, so clearly something inside is a factor.
Second, I think the majority of most places (and this would include Whites in America, as well as KoKos in Korea) tends to not realize the full extent of persistent and commonplace racist experience in their homeland visited upon minorities, so I am loath to dismiss racist treatment as mere kids' taunting.
That's all I have time for right now.
4:03 am on May 9th, 2010 30
"Second, I think the majority of most places (and this would include Whites in America, as well as KoKos in Korea) tends to not realize the full extent of persistent and commonplace racist experience in their homeland visited upon minorities, so I am loath to dismiss racist treatment as mere kids’ taunting."
I certainly can't say racism doesn't exist. Not even among kids (though I think it is profoundly rare in those below about the 7-8 grade levels). That said, I also find minorities are often hell bent to find racism where it isn't. I've met black people who if they saw me at a Baskin Robbins ordering vanilla ice cream, would see that as proof positive I was racist. They would also view me ordering chocolate ice cream as evidence of me hiding racist tendencies or some sort of unconscious symbolic dominance ritual. Heck, I was guilty at times in Korea of the same thing. I got pissed off a bus driver wouldn't let me on his bus! I was convinced the guy was a racist. About a month later after my Hangul skills had improved I saw him and realized he was just trying keep me from getting on the wrong bus!
Perhaps I shouldn't be this way, but I get profoundly skeptical hearing Asians complain of racism. My friend most vocal in this regard is a Korean girl who has an Ivy League bachelors degree and two masters degrees from respectable universities. She currently works in a government job where she is pulling down a 6 digit figure salary, has copious benefits and (usually) works bankers' hours. Add to that she lives in an upscale neighborhood and sends her kids to ritzy private schools. Sometimes I wish I could be so oppressed…
4:38 am on May 9th, 2010 31
That said, I also find minorities are often hell bent to find racism where it isn’t.
By "minorities" did you mean all people who are minorities doing this often or some people who are minorities do this often?
Yes, some people have a chip on their shoulder, and some people go overboard with seeing racism where it doesn't exist or with making a bigger deal out of some transgressions than they really warrant.
BUT… that in no ways dismisses, excuses, or rationalizes away pervasive racism and/or discrimination that exists against said minorities, whether they be KoKos or Whites or whoever responsible for that racism and/or discrimination.
Assuming you are or at least look predominantly Caucasian, maybe you've gotten a taste of being automatically labeled as an other or even an outsider, something Asian Americans and Latino Americans perpetually face (as do many Blacks when they're in predominantly non-Black areas, like OC — and I would apply this to Whites in many parts of Hawaii, where racism both ways is far more pervasive than many people outside Hawaii realize and many in Hawaii will admit).
So maybe you cut them some slack, yeah? Racism and racial discrimination in America is real, and it's not just a Black dude in Baskin Robbins complaining you bought vanilla ice cream.
5:20 am on May 9th, 2010 32
Assuming you are or at least look predominantly Caucasian, maybe you’ve gotten a taste of being automatically labeled as an other or even an outsider
I meant in Korea.
6:35 am on May 9th, 2010 33
Yes, I meant to direct my comments against individual minority members rather than all or certain groups. And no, it doesn't excuse the real deal. But it brings up the crying wolf issue.
I have rarely seen Gyopos cry racism…even when it would be in order! While I'm not saying its common among them, most all the racism complaints Ive heard from Koreans come from KAs. I haven't yet personally heard one KA complaint I had much sympathy for*. Its either some vague and non-specific complaint or its something utterly ridiculous like bitching about people calling them Chinese (which comes more from ignorance than animus) or complaining about there being no Korean classes in the public schools.
*I'm not saying there are no Korean-American without legitimate gripes. I just don't really think Ive run into one.
6:44 am on May 9th, 2010 34
Believe it or not, I actually didn't mind that in most instances. The issue which sticks in my mind most was being barred from certain establishments for not being Korean. No biggie. I can understand wanting to be around your own peeps. I don't even mind it when Koreans do it in the states so long as the place is off the beaten path or doesn't advertise in English.