So I’m running around this huge IT and literature bazaar in Kiev looking for Lionhead’s PC strategy game called “The Movies“. I’ve played it once and totally fell in love with it. It’s a great time killer – basically, it’s like a very specialized variety of The Sims.

I found it on DVD … for five bucks, both Russian and English versions. Immediately, as a half-American, half-Ukrainian dude, I’m hitting a brick-wall-like ethical dillemma. The starred-and-striped side of me is saying, “It’s illegal, it’s immoral, it’s pirated, it really costs $50, what about those programmers, you yourself is a programmer, what if your creations got ripped off“, etc.

While the American side of me is mumbling about the immediate need to create transparent international copyright laws to protect everyone, the Ukrainian side of me is screaming, “Holy crap! Get it – get it – get it – get it … Now!“.

So I got it.

It works without a hitch on my family’s machine, has an official hologram and customs signatures (imported from Russia), and can be exchanged for any other CD or DVD for a mere $2. “Exchanged” as in “come home, NERO, go back, pay two bucks, get the next DVD … lather, rinse, repeat“.

The only problem is that it would not run on my laptop. Not like “the game is too graphically demanding for my laptop“, but like “the laptop does not recognize the DVD inside the DVD-ROM“.

Turns out, the DVD was made for Region 5 (Eastern Europe), while my DVD-ROM is made to play only Region 1 stuff (North America). I tried software fixes – nothing. I tried to look for new firmware for the DVD-ROM. There is no firmware yet.

Nevertheless, it got me thinking about other cool things Ukrainians can get access to simply because they live in Ukraine.

Turns out, they can get all kinds of cool things. I mean movies, shows, games, books, music … all free, all high quality, all free … did I say they were all free?

How? Via HTTP … uhm … websites. They have these websites with an IP geolocation lock thingy – they are accessible only from Eastern Europe. Punch in the site URL from your home in Wichita, and you get nothing. Punch it in from Donetsk or Kiev, and enjoy gigs of freshest videos, movies, games, games for cellphones, shows for cellphones, etc …

Ethics aside … it’s awesome. It’s like the early days of Napster plus BitTorrent (SuprNova) plus Limewire … times ten.

I feel that it’s wrong to have access to something of that magnitude. However, we must also consider that the people of a sovereign nation have a right to create their own laws, including copyright laws. I feel it is a responsibility of a publisher to lobby local governments (if they choose to do so) to gain legal protection. Just because I spent time and money creating a program, a movie, or a song, and decide to sell it in China does not mean that the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China is now all of a sudden going to defend my rights as am author.

Hey, Microsoft did it … Now if you’re caught with a counterfeit copy of Windoze in Kiev, it’s 3 to 5 with confiscation of assets … well, if they decide to make an example out of you.

Will it change in the future? As the world is getting smaller, undoubtedly. Until then … oh, I gotta go. I need to tell my friend with a fat cable pipe to dl the last season of the Sopranos.