Los Angeles Times, 8/19/2012
First there were four of them, lined up against the subway platform wall. Then five, then six, then 11— all of them blind, all with retractable canes, all with bulging backpacks strapped to their torsos.
Socorro Jimenez was among them, waiting her turn. The unwritten rule is one per train. Soon, hers came.
She is a mom, in fact, and a widow, and a pirate — an unrepentant outlaw hawker of unauthorized bargain-basement CDs, one of dozens (or who knows, maybe hundreds?) of CD slingers who ride the rails of the Mexico City Metro system every day, under the subway cops’ radar with their nondescript backpacks.
Piracy is been a big problem in the Philippines. The government had to put up a department to deal with this alone. The Optical Media Board is what it came about and fortunately they have been doing good. Less pirated movies and records can be seen on the street. Lately they focused on illegal use of software and found out that even some companies practices such. An instance which happened last week where a call center company Garrett & Talon which has an in house account – JUSTFLOWERS was raided by the authority because of illegal use of operating system (windows). When OMB raided the company they found out that only 1 OS was legally bought and was used to run 100 or more PC’s. The case is now on going. Kudos to OMB!