Philippines and Our Culture of Ripping Off
By id_pop
@id_pop (293)
Philippines
May 8, 2007 12:32am CST
Asian Treasure ripping off Lara Croft is so obvious it only shows how unimaginative our so-called creative thinkers are here in the Philippines! And who is Robin Padilla supposed to be? Indiana Jones? It's one step back for GMA Network which I have thought to be one of Philippine television's innovators (I have to give them credit for Encantadia and Mulawin), but ripping off two obvious and very popular characters and placing them in a Filipino setting? Tsk.
How original, GMA Network. Great thinking, great show of creativity, and I can't believe our country could have produced such a clever, creative set of people who can come up with such an idea. You've changed my mind about giving up on our local culture of absorbing foreign ideas and reshaping it as our own instead of coming up with truly original concepts. Truly brilliant, truly commendable. (And here are my words, dripping with sarcasm.)
You see, not only do people pirate music and other intellectual properties (software, literature, and even school projects) here: a lot of people seem to think it's okay to pirate other people's ideas! I think that's the problem here: people don't seem to recognize that this is THEFT! Why does this happen? Because no one cares about solving the problem! No one cares because no one knows how to benefit from solving the problem! "Why would I care? It doesn't concern me. I'm not an artist/writer/programmer." I bet you that in most cases, the problem is not even recognized!
Don't get the wrong idea from GMA Network: it's not okay to just copy! How many other shows have Philippine television spawned based on other foreign ideas? We all remember ABC 5's supposed claims about them being "orig" (let me quote: "Iba and orig!"), and sure, how original did they get? Apparently, their definition of "original" does not extend beyond local bounds. They copied Tropang Trumpo I think from Saturday Night Live, Wow Mali! from Candid Camera, and that game show by Ariel Oreta (I forgot the title) from Jeopardy (if anyone has closer comparisons, let me know). If we keep on copying like this, how do we expect to make breakthroughs on our own?
It's not just with television. It happens everywhere. In music, in literature, in fashion, in technology, in schools of thought, in business, and in so many other fields. It's a CULTURE OF RIPPING OFF, and it's killing the Filipino's creative mind. The first step in solving this is recognizing the problem.
The question is: CAN WE DO IT?
4 responses
@sacredfloe (53)
• Philippines
8 May 07
yeah, I totally agree with this one. I also wrote about ripp-off's in my blog last january. And boy, why do this so-called big networks have to copy some concepts from foreign shows? Is creative team here synonymous to the word "the rippers"? LOL
@id_pop (293)
• Philippines
9 May 07
One thing to note here is that these big networks don't just copy concepts. I believe they copy concepts that are *tried-and-tested*, explaining the action as a good business move. That follows the thought: "It worked in the United States, why not try it here?"
The problem is: when are we going to come up with our own wholly original TV shows, or more creative ideas outside broadcast media, and have these concepts pirated by other countries? Chances are low, with the way we're coming up with unoriginal shows.
@betchai (140)
• Philippines
8 May 07
Filipinos don't really have their originality when it comes to entertainment. That's why it's a waste of time watching them. Those in the movie industry even complained of piracy. They said we should help lift the standards of Philippine movies. How could we do that? We can't even make quality movies of our own.
@id_pop (293)
• Philippines
8 May 07
Filipinos can be innovative, but the problem is that we rely too much on the outside that we forget that we still have our brains to think with. In my opinion, it is fine to learn and be aware of whatever developments are happening around the world so as to be able to make movies with better quality. Learn and be aware, that's what I said, not "rely on." That's part of the concept of innovation: we must not settle for what we have now.
We must not settle for that. We must go on and push our limits until that breakthrough idea comes across and the time starts for the next big thing.
@luzamper (1357)
• Philippines
14 May 07
We are fond of imitating others even if we have the talents which can make originals from our culture and brains. For those who are gifted with special talents, even if they want to show their talents, they lack the necessary funds as we cannot deny that we need money in whatever we do and the talented people are sometimes financially incapable of showing their talents and people usually do not support them as we have the crab mentality generally and we don't like other people to be known to be better than us. We can do it perhaps when we have already taken out our crab mentality and develop nationalism.
@jepoyamaru (114)
• Philippines
8 May 07
Yeah, you have a point. Why do they have to make the characters the same as Lara croft and Indiana Jones. I know another copied program, well its not really copied but edited... you know the Ripley's believe it or not in ABC 5, they change the host(forgot the name) and copied its settings(you know with antiques all around). I wonder why do they have to change the host? maybe for him to speak tagalog so everyone could understand. I wonder why ABC 5 like to copy lots of thing?
The Only thing I can say original in our afternoon game shows are pera o bayong and laban o bawi!!
@id_pop (293)
• Philippines
8 May 07
About the Ripley's Believe It Or Not show, I think the original one has been licensed by ABC 5 and just localized (and hosted by Raymond Bagatsing). It's just the same thing as localizing Deal or No Deal (Kris Aquino), The Weakest Link (Edu Manzano), Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Christopher de Leon), and (Pinoy) Big Brother.
So they're not ripping this one off, but just he same, they're feeding off ideas that have already been tried and tested. Well, the truth is it makes sense business-wise because they already know what sells, but relatively speaking, if the Philippines keeps this up, we won't ever gain any edge over any other innovative country (such as Japan).
