Bootleg DVD's the norm in Mexico?

Question

I am from the United States, and am currently vacationing in Guadalajara, Mexico. I am very surprised at the number of bootleg DVD shops. They are everywhere! I know it's illegal, but do they just not care? It's also worth mentioning that a brand new video game costs about 80 American dollars in the mall while they cost about 5 dollars bootleg. My guess is that the police are probably buying the bootlegs too, so they don't want to do anything about it. I can't say I blame them.

Answer 1

Yes, its cool, in Mexico DF there is a place called Meabe and they shout on megaphones that they place modchips to xbox360/ps3/wii to read pirate games, just like that, the games works pretty fine, and you can find them at a price up to 5 dlls, the games are top quality, and its normal to buy pirate movies on dvd, they are high quality copies, dvd clones i would say for 1 dolar, and also there are some cam and telesync versions of the latest movies that looks crappy, but they show you the dvd so you are aware that maybe it wont be watchable so its up to you, you dont get scammed, they also put subtitles in spanish to everything. You can find every kind of digital p****y in Mexico, its completely normal and the police only makes efforts to catch the major distributors because the people that sells movies on the streets dont have another way to get some money to their homes, there is a lot of unemployment in Mexico, and even if you are employed the minimum wage is $5 dlls per day, you are lucky if you get paid $25 per day, if they had the same job opportunities and wage as the "Americans" then it would be different. Its more common to buy p****y in Mexico than originals.

Answer 2

Whats the question

Yes I can buy good quality, fairly new videos for as little as 10 pesos in our market

Answer 3

Occasionally there's a call for a crackdown, and the police will conduct a raid.  But the shopkeeper would have paid his local policeman to inform him of upcoming raids, so his has plenty of time to hide the bootlegs.  Then he brings the stuff back out next week.

If the raid occurs at a tianguis (weekly open air market), the dealers usually don't know it's coming, but they can snatch the four corners of the blanket and toss the DVDs into the truck or van at the first signs of a raid.  Then they're back in business next week.

Some dealers are caught--they loose that merchandise and pay a fine.  But if you're paying a dollar for a DVD, what's the cost to him 20 or 25 cents? So how much profit does he have to make in the 51 weeks with no raids, to offset the one raid?

Answer 4

Yes it is normal in Mexico. 10 pesos for a DVD.