Camerado's Observations on Pirate Movie Exhibition in Cambodia
Currently, foreign-run pirate movie venues in Cambodia are thriving now more than ever, and they continue to rip off filmmakers and studios while negatively impacting Cambodia's reputation in the international media trade. Just consider: when an international filmmaker discovers their film has been screened in Cambodia without their knowledge or permission - Cambodia suffers. It becomes 'the Cambodians' who ripped off the film...not the actual foreign venue owner who made the decision to screen the movie, sourced the bogus title, and makes a living off concession sales and admission fees, with nary a penny going to the producer of the film. Over the past several years since the original writing of The CamboFest Story , pirate venue owners in Phnom Penh have become savvier, more clever. Now that the issues of public performance rights and copyright for films has been well-raised (through incidents like those seen in that strange but true tale) these ...
