Sour Swinger Predominantly follows my Army & Iraq Deployment. Also has some Geek, School, and other talk.

It seems you can find a movie shop on any Army FOB. In Taji, it was called The Movie Shop. How original. There were 2 that I knew of. Here in Liberty it’s called the Ali Shop and I’m aware of at least 3. This isn’t any normal movie shop and its not because they also sell computer software and games. Almost everything found in these stores is 100% pirated material.

Upon first walking in, I was totally flabbergasted. Movies only cost 2 bucks and they have just about every movie you can think of. If not, simply request it and they’ll have it for you within a week or so. They even have movies that just came out in theater. Some, like Wolverine could be bought before the movie even hit the theaters. Of course it was an uncompleted version with many of special effects not digitized yet.

The movie shops even have collections that make you wonder why the entertainment industry doesn’t follow suit. You can find complete movie sets of famous actors such as Jackie Chan, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, etc. Other movie sets include famous horror flicks, major block busters, top science fiction, etc. Of course it doesn’t stop there. They also have TV shows. From classics like the original Batman series to newer programs like CSI. Just like the movies, you can find seasons that have not been released on DVD.

It gets even better with the games. They go for 3 bucks and you can find them for any system. Whether it be PSP, Playstation (2 & 3), Xbox 360, Wii, or PC. They even have game packs (not found any where else) such as the best of strategy or the best of first person shooters. Some game packs will include over 25 games! For a small fee they will even mod your system to play these hacked games.

Of course nothing beats the computer software they sell. By far it offers the best bang for your buck. I can pick up a full working copy of Vista Ultimate which normally retails for $300. You can also buy MS Office Pro (normally $500), Adobe Creative Suite 4 (normally +$1500), and even AutoCAD (normally +$2500). You name it, they got it and it’ll only cost you 5 bucks! That’s It! FIVE FREAKIN BUCKS!! HOLY SH*T!!!!

You may ask, as do I, how is this possible? Of course your how is probably how they can achieve such low prices and get movies out while they are still in theater. That’s easy. My how, is how the Army allows this and why the MPAA, RIAA, Gaming Industry, etc haven’t raised a law suit! Granted its a different country who is concerned about more important things then international copyright laws, but its blatant piracy found on…(this is the key point) American installations. American installations that not only provide a building to use but power to run said shops.

These movie shops are extremely popular. Buying movie after movie on a regular basis is pretty common. And why not? With merchandise so cheap who wouldn’t. It makes me wonder whether the company’s back home should take notes. Are newly released movies worth 20 bucks a pop? Will I watch that movie more times in a year then I would renting it 20 bucks worth. Will the DVD even last a year before it gets scratched beyond repair? Are games really worth the 60 bucks brand new? This reminds me of an interesting tid bid from Valve (a game developer & distributor) which claims games are too expensive. They found the more heavily they discounted games, the more it dramatically increased sales. No brainer right? Well I’m talking about a ridiculously crazy increase. They cite a 50% weekend sale on one title increased its sales by 3,000 percent! You can read their report here. Its no wonder why piracy in the entertainment industry is becoming more common.

Oh and to those still wondering on the how can the movie shops be so cheap….allow me. If Pirate Bay was a store, it would look like these shops. Pirate Bay is like a Google that specifically tracks movies, games, software, etc to download for free. It just so happens most of those files are illegal and as such has become the prime place to find black market material. I bet these Iraqi merchants go on Pirate Bay (or other similar site) download the said movie, game, software and burn it to a DVD. Then they Google for the label art, slap it on the DVD, plop it on the shelves, and call it a day. Cost of overhead….next to nothing. How do movies still in theater show up on the black market? Either someone on the inside stole a digital copy of the film (like the Wolverine movie) or more likely, some one video taped it from inside a theater. And yes those kind generally aren’t the best of quality.

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