Philippine Malls are Pirate Free?

"The Ayala Malls are pirate free. So are the Shoemart (SM) group. And so is the Robinsons group and there are a couple of other malls that have since been declared "pirate" free." - OMB Chairman Edu Manzano

The recent changes of tack of the Optical Media Board (OMB) have been, so far, showing good results but are our main malls really pirate free? Are pirated games not considered “pirate” anymore? More on this after the jump.

For my first post here in GameOPS, who would have thought I would be posting something about piracy? The interview conducted by Inquirer last week with the Chairman of the OMB made me cringe because we all know that those malls are not completely "pirate free". Maybe searching for old articles by GameOPS under the piracy and pirates-r-us labels would remind you why that ain't so.

The OMB will be coordinating with the Bureau of Customs because according to Manzano "Seventy percent ng lahat ng produkto (of all [pirated] products) is coming in from other countries. So if we can stop it from entering our shores so much the better."

We have two actions to choose from. The first is that we sit down, relax, and wait for the OMB and the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team to discover about this. Or second, we can be good citizens and inform our government officials about malls and stores that are still selling pirated materials. Someone please tell them that games can also be pirated and not just movies.

A peaceful and pirate free day to everyone ;)