Quandary

We visit a shop which I frequented regularly (is that a tautology?) in my unthinking past which has every CD you can imagine, for $4. They look exactly like the real thing – even the pictures on the CDs, the lyrics in the booklet in the cover, and so on. Not dodgy quality, no bad photocopied labels – just immaculate CDs - which are all pirated and illegal by the standards of anywhere else but Syria.

These are legal in Syria and my friend who runs the shop told me that copyright laws are now in place and will come in one day, and then he will have to stop making the CDs as he is not willing to break the law. I am terribly torn between my position as wife of a very vulnerable government officer, my knowledge through dear friends (like my blog fairy) of the music industry and damage done by illegal selling of CDs and my lust for the CDs available here which are just not around in Cairo. Google Nai Music and see what I mean. And no – they will not sell outside of Syria because that is illegal. And no – I won’t bring any back because my conscience would not let me.

A comment on Nai from a merchant in the suq – “those guys, they sell anything. All you have to do is go home and cook the dinner”.