Paper 5, Work in progress, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina Project

Looking at Movie Piracy in the City of Fez -

By Asmaa Bebaba

Introduction

Movie Piracy is a global phenomenon. It is a daily battle in many Moroccan cities. The aim of this paper is to analyze the im-pact of movie piracy on Moroccan identity. When I engaged with the project of movie piracy in Fez, I found out that this activity is a source of survival for thousands of people. Also important in this project is the shape of the Medina which is touched by the as-pects of globalization. That is, beside crafts and traditional jobs that are well known in Fez, one also finds sellers of movies, music and contraband products of all kinds. Pirated movie sellers are every where in the streets of the old Medina. Some sellers have managed to open small shops to sell pirated movies and music. This clearly shows that Fez, the authentic space, is under the pres-sures of globalization. Many theatres have gone bankrupt as a re-sult of increasing film piracy and the powerful spread of Internet, television and video.

My paper is divided into two chapters: the first chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the questionnaire and the interviews with Fez Medina consumers. The second chapter is dedicated to the exploration of the cultural influences that Indian and American movies have on Moroccan audiences. Within the same chapter, I have tried to account for the popularity of Bollywood cinema in Fez. Indian movies are very popular in Morocco because they deal with social issues, popular themes, love and romance. In ad-dition to this, the Moroccan audience also benefits from piracy by enjoying the consumption of American movies. These films are ranked first in Moroccan preferences. Yet, they are subject to the rules of piratical black market, which reduces their values as Amer-ican movies.

I. Movie piracy in the city of Fez

Movie piracy is a robbery that is committed via Internet without a license from authorities. The one who practices movie piracy is called a pirate. He engages in downloading movies from Internet and makes thousands of copies and distributes them among sellers. Therefore, the computerized piracy of video has re-cently become a common job in Fez. Nowadays, with the inven-tion of “Video compression format”[1], it is “possible to fit two or more movies in one CD”[2]. Besides, the invention of DVDs makes easier the transfer of Video to computer. Hence, the image is more and more perfect than ever.

Furthermore, movie piracy becomes easier with the invention of screeners and camcorders (cams). With the help of screeners and cams, the movie is stolen from cinemas and theatres. A screener gives a high quality copy of the movie, while a cam is a film recorded with a video camera.

In this chapter, I will try to deal with the Fez Medina question-naires and interviews. My argument will revolve around the idea that movie piracy is an illegal activity. However, poverty and un-employment are strong reasons that lead to the involvement of the population of Fez in this job. I will also try to detect the most popular movies and the reasons behind their huge circulation in Fez.

1.1 Analysis of the Medina questionnaires

In this questionnaire, I have tried to group the responses to the questions posed in statistical figures.

In order to reach an accurate result, I have deliberately chosen a sample of one hundred people to question. Figure 1 illustrates the first sets of questions. The three questions listed in Figure1 form an introductory entry to the phenomenon of movie piracy in Fez.

Figure 1: Introductory questions movie piracy analysis

Questions The rate in Percentage   yes no 1- Do you know some one involved in movie piracy? 85 15 2- Do you buy CD's even though they are illegal 90 10 3- Do you make a difference between legal and illegal CDs 91 9

In Figure 1, 85 percent of people under study reveal that they are familiar with sellers who are involved in piracy activity. There-fore, movie piracy is a familiar job. Many of the sellers that I meet in Fez Medina claim that it is one of their rights to work in this field. They need to earn their livings. As a job, selling pirated movies is legal in the minds of a great number of people.

Moreover, Figure1 mentions that 90 percent of the popula-tion in Fez consumes CDs and DVDs although they are aware that these movies are illegal. 91 percent of the respondents claim that they know the difference between legal and illegal movies.

These statistics provide me with ample information about the condition of piracy in the city of Fez. One understands that movie piracy becomes “a natural job”[3] and seen as legal. Equally impor-tant is the consumer’s behavior of buying CDs though they are il-legal. As a matter of fact, consumers are mostly attracted by the cheap pirated CDs and DVDs. In this way, consumers seem to completely ignore the financial damage caused by pirated mov-ies consumption.

Figure 2 depicts in percentage the factors that push the indi-vidual to choose piracy as a job.

Social factors The rate in percentage (%) Unemployment 75 Interesting benefits 15 Movie piracy is an informal job 10

Figure 2 illustrates that 75 percent is the rate of people who claim that unemployment pushes the individual to be a movie pi-racy seller. Besides, 15 percent of people think that movie piracy sellers are seduced by the large income realized in a short period of time. Moreover, 10 percent of the population thinks that the in-formality that characterizes movie piracy activity pushes individu-als to invest in this kind of business.

As it is examined by this questionnaire, there is a strong mo-tive behind the emergence of piracy as a job. The crisis of unem-ployment threatens all the active youth population, artisans and even employers who are sometimes fired from their jobs. Indeed, in the city of Fez, there are hardly any job opportunities and the drift from towns that surrounds the city contributes to the increase of unemployment and poverty.

The next Figures (3 and 4) states the reasons behind consuming il-legal CDs and how each individual tries to obtain the movies in case they are not available in the black market.

Figure 3: The reasons of CDs consumption

As a consumer, do you buy illegal CD's
because they are: The rate in percentage (%) Cheap 92 Pirated 1 Offering multiple movie choices 7

Figure 4: ways to obtain movies outside the market

As a consumer how do you obtain the movies that are not available in the market? The rate in percentage (%) By downloading films from internet 70 By copying from friends 24 By looking for other opportunities 6

Figure 3 reveals that 92 percent of the questioned population consumes pirated movies due to its lower prices, which reflects that the cheap price is the first motivating reason for people to consume pirated movies. My findings also claim that only 7 per-cent of the population think that the black market provide a mul-tiplicity of movie choices.

Figure 4 illustrates the methods used by consumers to get a movie outside the market. 70 percent of the respondents down-load films from the Internet, while only 24 percent of people seek their friends to obtain new movies. As for the remaining 6 percent, they try to look for other opportunities.

A large majority of people are attracted by cheap movies, whose prices are between 5 DH to 8 DH for CDs and 10 DH to 20 DH for DVDs. For the Fassi population, those prices are adequate since the legal CDs are very expensive (60DH to 120DH for CDs and 100DH to 350DH for DVDs). In addition to this, legal CDs are hardly found in the market. They do not cover all the choices.
According to my findings, the majority of people who down-load films from Internet are among the category of youth. The software used in this operation is P2P software. It is also called “the peer to peer file sharing applications”. It works with both eDonkey network and the Kad network”[4]. P2P software has many features. It transmits data in a compressed form and it has the ability to ac-cept links from other webs as well as downloading the files. In my view, the majority of young people in Fez are conscious of the software that is used to download all types of movies. There are many types of software, such as line wire, kazaalite, Ares, Mor-pheus, Shareeza and others.

The last Figure examines another set of questions that are also targeted to the consumer who is seduced by pirated movies in the black market.

Figure 5: The services provided by the sellers

What are the facilities that the movie piracy dealer provides the buyer with? The rate in percentage (%)   yes no The seller checks the movie’s quality for the buyer. 75 25
The buyer can change the movie if it does not work. 28 72

Figure 6: The quality of pirated movies

How is a pirated movie in terms of quality? The rate in percentage (%) Distorted image quality 12 Distorted audio quality 7 Distorted light quality 10 Broken colors 24 Good quality 46

Figure 5 explores the respondent’s rate vis-à-vis the services that are offered to the consumer after the operation of buying pi-rated movies. We have noticed that 75 percent of people who claim that their CDs and DVDs are examined before they are bought. Yet, only 28 percent of customers can change their mov-ies in case the latter do not work properly. As for the quality of pi-rated movies, Figure 6 illustrates the respondent’s answers. 46 per-cent of customers are satisfied with the films they consume, while 25 percent find that their movies’ colors are broken. That is to say, the real image of the movie is absent. 10 percent of people claim that there is sometimes a distortion of special effects, which con-tributes to breaking the real aspect of the movie. Audio quality is also problematic since 7 percent of consumers complain about this issue.

Throughout this questionnaire, I found out that consumers are stimulated by movie piracy consumption. It seems to me that the concept of “subliminal perception”[5] can be used to analyze the consumer’s behavior. The concept of subliminal perception “sug-gests that people’s thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that are perceived without any awareness of perceiv-ing”[6]. In fact, consumers are influenced by visual stimulation which can be explained through the way sellers display their products. Most sellers in the city of Fez show their best selling movies as a sample on small televisions. As a result, customers are easily at-tracted. In my findings, subliminal seduction also features in such a way that it uses its power over people’s feelings, thoughts and conducts. Subliminal seduction[7] sends its subliminal messages to en-tice consumers to buy and use the various products of piracy ser-vices.

1.2 Shedding light on the interviews in Fez Medina:

I have consulted the sellers in Fez old Medina, and what is most intriguing about interviewing them is their awareness when dealing with pirated movies. Most sellers are persistent in saying that movie piracy is a legal job, in the sense that third world com-munities can not afford to buy legal movies.

In this part, I will try to write down all the interviews and then to discuss the responses in detail.

The first interviewed seller that I will deal with is Mimoun:

Name: Mimoun.
Age: 19 years old.
Date of interview: 21 June 2006.
Duration: 10 minutes.
Location: Fez Old Medina.
1. Mimoun has never attended school.
2. He has gone through several minor jobs in the Medina.
3. He started selling movies two years ago. He has been assisted by a friend of him who owns a cyber.
4. He actually downloads films from the Internet.
5. He has never been arrested by the police for being in-volved in this job.
6. He prefers selling movies rather than doing other jobs in the old Medina, such as crafts work, with which he can never help his family the way he is doing now.

The following interview is with Mohammed:

Name: Mohammed.
Age: 19 years old.
Date: 20 June 2006.
Location: Fez Old Medina.
Time duration: 10 minutes.
1. Mohammed has attended school until the second year of high school.
2. He used to repair radios.
3. He downloads all the films that have a high demand in the market.
4. He is aware that selling pirated movies is illegal.
5. He has never been questioned by the police for his activ-ity.
6. He thinks that this job brings money very quickly.

Simohammed is another seller who is involved in movie piracy:

Name: Simohammed.
Age: 27 years old.
Location: Fez old Medina.
Time duration: 20 minutes.
1. He has studied two years at university.
2. He has a small shop in the Medina.
3. He has been doing this activity for four years.
4. He finds this job interesting and natural.
5. For him, in order to be involved in the activity of piracy, the seller needs to have some technical background and several specific computer components. Indeed, the seller should have a computer, a professional printer, a scanner, a duplicator and a burner.
6. Simohammed works as a pirate and as a seller at the same time. For him, the best films sold are Indian, American, Egyp-tian and dubbed film cartoons.
7. Mohammed claims that he needs three steps to ac-complish his work :
First, he pirated images to be used on the covers of CDs and DVDs. Second, he burns the films from original CDs to empty ones. Third, he buys the adequate paper called “solofan” (cellophane) to cover the CDs and DVDs.
8. He states that “movie piracy has changed the lives of many people; movie piracy is a natural job”.
9. The best sold movies are actually Indian movies as well as dubbed Indian clips whose prices go from 7 DH to 10 DH.

The last interview is with Badr:

Name: Badr.
Age: 28.
Date: 20 June 2006.
Location: Fez old Medina.
Time duration: 15 minutes.
1. Badr has graduated from the university of Mohammed Ben Abdallah.
2. He owns a shop for selling and pirating films.
3. For him, piracy is a very huge field. 
4. Piracy can be divided into the crack and the hack.
5. The crack means all software produced by international companies and costs millions of dollars.
6. In Fez, people can not buy the real crack because the ability of consumption in the city is very low.
7. For him, piracy is a method that is discovered by the whole world. Therefore, some pirates burn a copy of the original and make it available to other pirates.
8. The hack according to him is linked with piracy.
9. Some people capture a number of credit cards and bank cards via Internet.
10. Badr states that “ Internet is the source where every one can download movies”
11. Hackers also target cinemas. They use their mobile phones to record the films and then transmit them into CDs.
12. As a reply to my question to Badr whether he is for or against piracy, he answers that he is against piracy because it is a crime.
In the light of the data that I have collected, all the interviews seem to me identical because they share many common points. First, the majority of sellers are aware that dealing with movies pi-racy is wrong. Yet, they also assert their rights to have this job since they make their livelihood out of pirating and selling movies in Fez. Another common feature between the interviewees is that they are all young. In this way, the 18-28 age categories are particularly prominent in Internet movie piracy or computerizing piracy. Hence, as I have mentioned in Figure 3, there are 70 percent of young downloaders in Fez who have access to movies only through the Internet. Equally important, the interviewees have never been interrogated by the police. What is also important in this analysis is the factor of competition. Young people actually compete to gain fame out of hacking, pirating and selling movies in a great proportion. It seems to me that young people learn a lot from piracy. They explore technology. Therefore, piracy becomes a way to prove their abilities. I also think that the social constraints under which Fassi young people live, contribute to the fact that many people choose this job more than any time before. Thus, the Old Medina becomes a place for solutions at very cheap prices. The customer is of course the first who makes profit out of the ser-vices of piracy and hacking. Concerning the sellers, most of them benefit from the actual conditions of the market. The seller can be a pirate and a hacker at the same time since this experience is acquired once the individual starts working in movie piracy. The seller is a rebellious character. For him, nothing is illegal in Morocco and everything can be solved with money. The new seller always needs to acquire basic skills, such as computer jargon, the capac-ity to find solutions to any technical problem, the art of marketing and a minimum of some foreign languages since foreigners also benefit from pirated movies once they are in Morocco. In fact, movie piracy does not have a location. It cannot be discussed as something fixed although I am talking about the city of Fez. The phenomenon of movie piracy is affects many Moroccan cities. It is also widely spread all over Third World countries. The fact that Fassi sellers collaborate with other sellers from Casablanca and Rabat shows that exchange does not stop at the level of the city of Fez. Movie piracy activity crosses the borders. This activity creates job opportunities for people in very precarious conditions and plays a major role for consumers who can not participate in benefiting from legal national products. Actually, with the emergence of all sorts of technologies and Media, products circulate to an un-precedented level in all parts of the globe. Therefore, the popular-ity of Indian movies in the city of Fez proves the circulation of local products within a global context and vice versa.

II. The cultural influence of pirated Indian and Ameri-can movies on the Moroccan identity

1.1 The popularity of Indian movies in Morocco

In this part, I am interested in discussing the popularity of In-dian movies in the Moroccan context. In my view, Indian movies are extremely popular in Morocco and particularly in Fez because they deal with popular themes, social issues, and romance in a very artistic way using songs and dancing.

Indian movies spread all over western and non western coun-tries, and Morocco is not an exception. Actually, there are many reasons behind this huge popularity that Indian movies have. They give voice and space to marginalized people through raising popular themes, such as poverty, marriage and class conflicts. The Moroccan audience identifies with the ideas, values and aesthet-ics of Indian movies although India is a different culture. And this is what Appadurai calls “new cosmopolitanism”[8]. That is, to unify the cultural, financial and political flows within and between western and non western countries into a single conceptual whole. Fur-thermore, characters in Indian movies represent the anxieties of Indian society. Characters are for instance so confused about whether they should marry the person their parents choose or whether the person they love. This is an important social issue in both India and Morocco alike. Like India, Morocco suffers from a tension between modernity and tradition. Therefore, Indian movies represent an element of “sharedness” of culture between India and Morocco, whereby Indian culture influences Morocco. Indian movies have gained a wide audience all over the world because they create a utopian world with the use of romance.

Moreover, one of the fundamental elements in traditional Hin-du society is the caste system. Sagarika writes that the caste is “a social practice, and it has been so strongly emphasized by elec-toral politics”. For her, “religion, caste and language have created social as well as communication barriers which have existed for centuries and which laws can not eliminate”[9]. From here one un-derstands that the caste system is a hierarchical structure, which is so rigid and does not allow people with different castes to inter-marry. In this regard, Indian movies encourage inter caste com-munal marriages through the use of romance in all the plots of films. The popularity of Indian films resides in their attempts to rep-resent the hope for equality between castes, offering a space for lower castes to belong to upper castes through romance and marriage. For the Moroccan audience, these popular themes are very attractive. Indian movies always mix romance, dancing and accessories with drama within the same film which make of Indian films a unique style of their own.

In order to have an idea concerning the popularity of Indian movies, I have visited all the cinemas in the city of Fez. There are nearly ten cinemas in Fez of which only four show Indian movies. Despite this poor broadcasting of Indian films, they are very popu-lar in the city of Fez. In Astore cinema, the movie entitled GUNNAH is shown three times a day and costs only 6 DH for a ticket. Simi-larly, in L’arc en Ciel cinema, GUNNAH is also shown three times and costs 6 DH. I have visited many cinemas such as Mauritania, Shaab, Amal, Empire, Andalous and Boujloud. Yet, the only ones which show Indian movies are the L’arc en Ciel, Astore and Em-pire. A great majority of people in Fez enjoy Indian movies and go to watch the new ones. According to the Fassi public opinion, In-dian movies have a culture that American movies seem to lack. Indian movies for the Fassi public opinion “give room to family and kinship”. Indian films do no celebrate themes like individuality and utilitarianism as American films do. Indian films for the population of Fez represent special symbols which are more ore less similar to Moroccan traditions, such as, marriage celebrations, village life and even the female dress of the sari, which most Moroccans seem to identify with women. What is most intriguing in this field work is that Fassi viewers of Indian films show great familiarity with the historical experience of watching films. In my interview with Hadj Ali, an old man in his 73 years, he claims that “older Indian films of the 60s and 70s are more authentic than the new ones”. For him, the new Indian movies are more Westernized. I had a long discussion with him and he claimed that “characters in older In-dian movies used to wear mostly traditional clothes, kept animals or travel in carts drawn by oxen”. Actually, in new Indian movies, characters have changed their styles. They are assimilated to the Western look. Thus, the Indian classical icons, for Hadj Ali have dis-appeared and have been replaced by Western icons.

1.2 Indian movies and Moroccan audience:

Actually, the sight of Amitabh Bachchan, “the most durable star’[10] with his masculine charisma lighting his cigarette like Clint Eastwood on American television, is to be found everywhere: post-ers displayed on the walls of fast food shops, mechanical garages and even groceries. Also intriguing in this huge circulation of Indian culture are the sounds of mobile phones mimicking the rhythms of song from films like Mohabbatein, Khabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kuch Kush hota hai as well as other recent Indian songs. Indian movies’ influence has featured on the Moroccan street, fashion, music and communication for more than thirty years.

In her article, “My Bollywood Connection”, Sandhya S. Nandkarni has been extremely surprised to find that “the charm of Hindi cinema lives on in the street of Morocco”[11]. Sandhya on her visit to Morocco is welcomed with many “familiar but misplaced Hindi words, such as Namaste! Mohabbat! Zindagi!”[12]. In fact, these are words which the Moroccan population has picked up from Indian movies to which people in Morocco have access to because of the spread of movie piracy in all the cities of Morocco. Indian movies are watched in a language which Moroccan people ig-nore. What is most attractive for Moroccan viewers in Fez are the artistic creative dancing, the bright colors and the sense of family unification that are heavily prominent in Indian films. Ashish Rajadhyaksha in his article “The Bollywoodization of Indian Cinema: cultural nationalism in a global arena” claims that “Indian movies are feel good, all happy in the end, tender love stories with lots of songs and dances…that’s what attracts non Indian audiences across the world[13]. This is a very extremely interesting declaration. Therefore, I am interested to show how identity is refashioned in the city of Fez through the consumption of Indian films. In my view, Indian movies have a great appeal across social classes, gender and fashion.

Indian movies are heavily consumed by the category of work-ing class. This particular class of society is very fascinated by these movies. According to David Chute in his article “The Rise and fall and Rebirth of Bollywood Superstar”, Amitabh Bachchan serves the project of castes. Bachchan has played a proletarian in many of his films. He has also played the role of a Christian and a Muslim. Furthermore, Indian films give an insight into the local conditions of and indigenous worlds that in Third World countries. Hence, Mo-roccan viewers participate in the process of de-indigenisation through the circulation of Indian words in the Moroccan street. I can also add to this the notion of difference. Moroccan viewers in Fez seem to welcome and love a culture through their movies de-spite the fact that India is religiously and culturally different. In my view, The Moroccan audience finds some similarities between In-dian culture and the Moroccan one. What make Moroccan women engage with the Indian culture are two folds. First, both men and women in Indian movies wear long dresses, which is simi-lar to the Moroccan ‘djellaba’ for example. Women are also dressed in long, charming saris and scarves, which add a nice feminine decorum to women in Indian movies. Indian films are also about the representation of patriarchy in Hindi society. For Moroc-can women, patriarchy is not only found in Morocco, but also in India.

What is more, similarities can be also found in marriage cele-brations, customs, food and village lives. In Morocco, arranged marriages are very common. Arranged marriages are not based on love but on other standards, such as family status, money or beauty. In Indian culture it is almost the same. Two different castes, for example, cannot intermarry. Indian movies actually question the experience of romantic love and give feasibility to different caste to marry and have a happy ending. This is very attractive to Moroccan viewers. Romance and love are in fact Western con-cepts which circulate through public forms and media. These two elements leave its traces on the Moroccan identity. In addition to that, I should not ignore the world of fashion featured in Indian movies. Indeed, Indian accessories have a great influence on fashion. For example, we have nose and navel piercing which are taken from Indian culture. Actually, piercing is not restricted to women as in the Indian culture, but it is a style adopted by both men and women. The world of fashion has taken the idea of pierc-ing from India and Africa. Today, we can see people having tongue, brow and lips pierced which are done in medical clinics. Thus, the adoption of local fashion accessories to cross the limits of geography is a feature of globalization. Moreover, Moroccan magazines display models wearing traditional Indian accessories or clothes that are inspired from Indian robes. In Morocco, new brides also wear the Indian sari during their wedding days, which proves the great influence of Indian culture on Moroccan people.
This cultural influence that Indian movies have on Moroccan identity along with the recognized similarities between the two cul-tures make possible a serious attachment to Indian movie con-sumption in the Moroccan context. In this way, more than ever be-fore, people in Fez benefit from pirated Indian movies both as con-sumers and as sellers.

1.3 Indian movies and the work of imagination

Indian pirated movies have an impact on the Moroccan im-agination. This latter have an important dimension in reflections about Indian movies. It has an effect on the popular Moroccan culture. It is through Indian pirated movies, which become more accessible today that Moroccans imagine a world of their own. That is, men and women imagine other kinds of styles, fashion, love, romance, colonialism and postcolonialism. In this way, Indian romance, fashion and love are incorporated within the Moroccan context. In my view, the reasons behind this strong influence of In-dian pirated movies are several. Firstly, the piracy of CDs, DVDs in the Old Medina of Fez provide the Moroccan population with more accessibility to consume pirated CDs than ever. Actually, even the poorest people can afford to buy films which are some-times sold for 3 DH. Secondly, the popularity of Indian films in Mo-rocco sheds light on the circulation of Indian products. In my view, this is an aspect of globalization, whereby the local products, art, fashion and beauty go global. Thirdly, Indian pirated movies give Moroccan people a space to engage with other modes of tradi-tions, customs and rituals which are entirely different. My argument draws from Arjun Appadurai’s view of the centrality of the image and imagination:

“The image, the imagined, the imaginary---- These are all terms which direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination a social practice. No longer fantasy (opium for the masses whose real work is everywhere ), no longer sim-ple escape ( from a world defined principally by more concrete purposes and structures ) , no longer elite pastime(thus not relevant to the lives of ordinary peo-ple), and no longer mere contemplation (irrelevant for new forms of desire and subjectivity), the imagination has become an organized field of social practices, a form of work ( in the sense of labor and culturally or-ganized practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility… The imagination is now central to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global order.”[14]

Appadurai links imagination with the global flow of people. For him, collective experience of the mass media, especially film and video creates the same “sodalities of worship and charisma”[15], After the disjuncture, Appadurai argues that “ordinary people begun to deploy their imaginations in the practice of their every day lives”[16]. He stresses the issue that “imagination is no more a faculty of the gifted individual”. It is, however, “a property of collectives”. With the emergence of transnational, “diasporic sodalities, people can use mass mediated communication rather than face to face interaction to bond as “a group that begins to imagine and feel things together”[17]. Hence, Moroccan Fassi peo-ple share a collective experience through mass mediated com-munication.

Equally importantly, Western domination can also serve as a possible framework for this analysis. The West uses imagination as a way to preserve order. The West thinks that it is the fountain of art, progress and power. This positioning reduces non western coun-tries to respondents to the West’s control of imagination. Accord-ing to Appadurai, with the emergence of global flows, people, media images and technology, imagination can not be con-tained or regulated by any boundaries. In this sense, imagination is no more in the hands of the West. It crosses cultural and national boundaries. As a result, the category of imagination subverts the barrier of the nation. Thus, the encounter of the Fassi culture with the pirated Indian movies evokes the sensibility of the Moroccan culture, especially through raising romance, castes and patriarchy.
Furthermore, it is also of a paramount importance to indicate that Indian movies have an international audience. Not only are Indian movies targeting the population inside India, but also to the flow of Indian immigrants all over the world and the international audience. Here, I want to mention that Indian movies now use bi-lingual scenarios. That is, the use of Indian language and English for instance. As a result, Indian cinema has actually a large inter-national market, especially with the invention of satellite television, video tape and dubbing. Today, Indian movies circulate to an un-precedented level than ever. Moroccan audience is fascinated by “the happy ending”, romance, the landscape, music and dancing. Otherness, music, customs and dancing are references to exotic imagery that are heavily present in Indian movies.

1.4 Hollywood movies and its cultural influence on Moroccan viewers

Globalization seems to give a privilege to the ‘subal-tern’ instead of the Western civilization. As a case in point, Moroc-can spectators enjoy the happy luxury of having access to Ameri-can cinema before they get fully publicized at home. The Ameri-can industry is accordingly appropriated by the miserable other. Actually, the Moroccan finds trends and manners to frame the American cinematic production with disciplinary forms. The Mo-roccan is capable of parasitically benefiting from the huge com-mercial body through gestures of genuine piracy. Piracy is an em-powering sophisticated tool of adaptation. It is a source adapta-tion, given the pirate’s ability to seek some virtual partnership with ‘world’ cinema, having immediate access to the most elaborate textures of Hollywood cinema. The circulation of blockbusters in the city of Fez is an indicator of the most frequented movies of the season. They are premised on a hierarchical measurement of films in terms of accessibility and profitability. The most prosperous films are those which are most viewed. From one perspective, this filmic technique is meant to orient public attention towards the films that are highly praised and recommended. Therefore, it affects public tendencies and inclination vis-à-vis filmic consumption. From an-other perspective, one might detect a particular trivialization of massive interaction within and without films performed by wars of piracy. A disruption to this hierarchy is actively brought into play in the busy markets of contraband. In piracy markets, films do not signify the same thing for everybody. They are negotiated accord-ing to the local preferences. One would even stake a claim to the folklorization of the American movie that undergoes the sad in-convenience of having to bear the presence of local production, cinematic and non-cinematic. That is to say, the American block-busters are indifferently heaped along with other products of poor making and quality. In other words, the sophisticated movies are inexpensively put on sale, while they are highly regarded in Amer-ica. This complexity is thus reduced into a singular category. They become an entertaining body of pleasure for the Moroccan spec-tator. Accessibility is no longer a big issue since all productions once in the black market adhere to the violent rules of piratical governance. Thus, American pirated movies stand on equal foot-ing with other films regardless of their aesthetics. The canon is therefore de-formalized, indigenized and localized. These films are eventually mastered.

Furthermore, the circulation of pirated American movies in the city of Fes influences Moroccan customers. Moroccan viewers are very extremely attracted to the themes of Hollywood movies. These films are in my view, deviant, daring, and oppose the values of the Moroccan audience. Despite, the large difference between American culture and the Moroccan one, piracy has not only fa-cilitated the access to these movies but also has contributed to the popularity of Hollywood cinema in the ranks of the poor peo-ple who can not afford to buy legal CDs. Popular American films are not about everyday marriage stories, but about exciting and violent Mafia affairs. Here, I would like to put an emphasis on the idea that Hollywood filmic production centers on basically adven-ture stories and the notion of the ideal white man figure. This latter is always depicted as the holder of universal values such as de-mocracy, humanism and heroism. Like any Audience, the Moroc-can one identifies with the glamorous American star that is usually victorious at the end of the movie. Another interesting feature in American movies is the representation of Native Americans and their perpetual struggle with the white man. The majority of Mo-roccans are familiar with cowboy films. In addition, racism forms a big issue in American movies. The representation of racism and ethnicity highlights particular ideologies of Hollywood entertain-ment.

Conclusion

Movie piracy affects many Moroccan cities and contributes to the bankruptcy of many theatres in the city of Fez. Yet, movie piracy activity also helps many families to survive and create many job opportunities. This activity is a fast informal field which facili-tates accessibility to it. In this paper, I have tried to analyze the in-terviews as well as the questionnaire in order to draw the conclu-sion that Indian and American pirated movies have a strong influ-ence on the Moroccan Fassi imagination, in the sense that the Mo-roccan individual identifies with the Indian and American culture through their films. This cultural influence contributes to the heavy consumption and the quick circulation of American and Indian pi-rated movies.

Endnotes
[1] http://www.realvalue.net/brian/piracy/movies.html.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Interview number three.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eMule.
[5] A.E.Kazdim (ED), Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol.7, pp: 497-499), New York: Oxford.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimension of Globalization '(University of Minneapolis Press, Minneapolis, London), 1996.
[9] Sagarika Dutt, “Identities and the Indian: an overview”,Third World quarterly,vol 19, issue 3,1998, p411-433.
[10] David Chute, The Big B: “The Rise and Fall and Rebirth of Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan”, Marsh/April 2005, Vol 41, Issue 2, p50-56.
[11] Sandhya S.Nandkarni, “ My Bollywood Connection”,Tingis, Issue Winter 2004, p1-2.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ashish Rajadhyaksha, “The Bollywoodization of Indian Cinema: Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena”,Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, p25.
[14] Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimension of Globalization, Uni-versity of Minneapolis Press, Minneapolis London, p31, 1996.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.

Bibliography

Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large Cultural Dimension of Globalization, Public Worlds, volume 1, University of Min-neapolis Press, Minneapolis, London,p:31,1996.

Ashish, Rajadhyaksha, “The Bollywoodization of Indian Cine ma: Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena”, Inter-Asia Cul-tural Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, 2003, p: 25.

Chute, David, “The Big B: The rise and Fall and Rebirth of Bol-lywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan”,Vol 41,issue 2,p.p: 50-56,Marsh/April 2005.

Dutt, Sagarika, “Identities and the Indian : an overview”, Third World Quarterly, Vol.19, issue 3,p.p: 411-433.

Kazdim, AE ( Ed), Encyclopedia of psychology, Vol.7, p.p : 497-499, New York : Oxford.

Stam, Robert and Shohat, Ella “De-Eurocentricizing Cultural Studies: Some Proposals”, University of Western Ontario, 2002, p: 482.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eMule

http://www.realvalue.net/brian/piracy/movies.html

Appendix A

Questionnaire to the buyer

1. Age:

2. Gender:

3. Level of education:
Primary 
Secondary 
Faculty 
High school

4. Family Situation : 
Single 
married 
Divorced 
Widow

5. Do you know someone involved in movie piracy? 
Yes 
No

6. What are the causes that push him/her to have this job? Is it?
Unemployment 
Interesting benefits
Movie piracy is an informal Job

7. Do you buy Cds even though they are illegal?
Yes 
No

8. Do you make a difference between legal and illegal CDs?
Yes 
No

9. Why de you buy illegal CDS? Is it because they are :
Cheap 
Pirated 
Offering multiple movie choices

10. How do you obtain the films that are not available in the market?
By downloading them from the Internet
By copying from friends
By looking for other opportunities

11. Are you with or against movie piracy
For 
Against

12. According to you, does piracy have any effect on the economy of the country?
Economic degradation
Financial loses
Others

13. Do you think the prices of pirated movies are:
Cheap 
Average 
Expensive

14. What are the facilities that the movie piracy dealers provide the buyer with?
The seller checks the movie’s quality for the buyer
The buyer can change the movie if it does not work
Other

15. As a consumer, how is a pirated movie in terms of quality?
A distorted image quality 
A distorted audio quality
Distorted light quality
Broken colors 
Good quality