News for Feb. 11, 2006

King Kong and the pirates of South America

2/11/06, 10:00 am EST - Xoanon

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Weeks before the blockbuster ``King Kong'' opened in U.S. theaters in December, illegal copies of the movie were already for sale on the streets of Bolivia's impoverished capital for less than $1.50 each. Sidewalk vendors in Brazil sell pirated versions of San Jose-based Adobe Systems' photo editing software Photoshop for as little as $7 a copy, less than 1 percent of its list price, and in October, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva admitted to watching an illegal copy of a hit Brazilian film on the presidential jet. Some 99 percent of all the recordings sold in Paraguay are pirated. [More]