LOOK what they've done to my song, ma . . . It was to Melanie's plaintive 1970 lament that the Anti-Piracy Alliance marched last Wednesday to present its petition to the Chief Executive.
An apt theme, though perhaps a bit of an understatement. It is not only what has been done to songs, but to the films and software, and everything else related to piracy in broadcasting, information, and entertainment.
Last Wednesday's 1,600-strong march was the strongest show of solidarity ever by the film- and music-related industries. The last time they came out in force was in January 1992 when the film industry took to the streets to protest against triad infiltration.
Counterfeiters and copyright pirates have been spreading their poisonous tendrils and slowly squeezing the last breath out of Hong Kong's creative industries in the past five years, said last week's campaigners.
The figures show it. Production figures dropped from 300 movies in 1993 to 90 last year and left 20,000 film workers out in the cold; box-office takings are at a measly $400 million, the lowest-ever in 10 years; the music industry also saw its takings plunge from $1.4 billion in peak years to only $800 million.
'Piracy is not only hurting the film industry, it is destroying it. If nothing is done the whole industry will disappear in a year or two,' declared Woody Tsung Wan-chi, chief executive of the Motion Picture Industries Association, at the march.
Alarming words, perhaps, but it is true film-makers and investors are feeling decidedly disheartened by their own helplessness in the face of rampant copyright piracy.
