MEDIA publication offers : a good solution against

piracy?
Printed media enclosures are a custom in Grece many years ago . Below you
will find some of the facts concerned with the history of media enclosures , by the
amateur view of a media observer looking regularly the local newsstands, and
referring with approximate times
Here is a short parenthesis that refers to the status of piracy in Greece that explains in
short the reasons media entered into these offers . In its 2006 edition IFPI showed a 50%
level of music piracy for Greece , ranking them one of the top 10 countries in earth in
piracy level. But considering that the lower salary todays in Greece is Eu 750 , the price of
a legal CD is at least 20, is too expensive . The pirate CDs sell for Eu5 with pirate DVDs
around 7-10.As far as I can remember this was also a quite long ‘tradition’ still from the
cassette time , when tapes on 70s and 80s were sold in …baskets. But with the worst ever
audio. Even music shops those old times had higher earnings selling cassettes recorded
from LPs in their semipro decks . Today most of the market is driven by several mega
stores in the main centre of the city and African people selling pirate copies Nearly all
traditional music shops have been disappeared (except some selling only ‘vintage’ LPs )

The start of media enclosures came from 2 magazines of the early 90s using
material in their monthly issues:
• A hard rock magazine of early 90s , offered one CD with full albums from
alternative hard rock groups or mix material from various hard rock groups.
• A cinema magazine offered a video tape with selected movies of the
artistic/alternative cinema. This magazine still continues

In about 95-96 a small size TV magazine was the first offering , a song collection,
in each weekly issue , from popular singers in CD with full plastic cover .
However in about 1- 1,5 year after , the magazine ceased its publications due
to unknown reasons , possibly due to low market
Those times , if I am not wrong , was the times of coupons . One of them highest
selling newspapers offered with ca 40 +10 spare coupons a big collection of
classic music and little later another collection with operas,
A specialized magazine called Pista (stage ), same period , involved entirely in
Greek folk music , offered one CD with ‘underground’ folk music promoting
singers of the second and third class.
This practice arose the interest of other magazines and publications including …
detergents and other commodities to sell music CDs from that time. As for
example a newspaper called El Typos , offered for several weeks one Cd with
traditional song collection. Dixan the well known detergent offered Latin hits.
IN ca 2004 Eleftherotypia a left wing newspaper, “offering for the knowledge”,
as per their motto, was the first newspaper offering one VCD for free, with
documentaries from National Geographic channel, in its Saturday issue. CDs
were offered in carton envelope designed with pictures of the documentary . This
collection has been replaced with history documentaries from BBC and later with
movies from alternative stage
Soon other newspapers offered nearly the same:
Imerisia , an economics newspaper, their offerings successor, in its Saturday
issue offered DVDs from their collection ,mainly alternative movies , from the
national and international cinema. This offer was with ca 2 Euro markup price ,
compared to the plain newspaper. It used the standard (thick )plastic DVD box
The next newspaper was Ethnos, offering selected movies from alternative
stage , but soon changed the package into CD envelope with mainstream movies
..

From 2005-6 and then , nearly all newspapers and magazines (more particularly
TV mags ) use CD/DVD offers in their weekend issues with mainly blockbuster
movies :

The only exception is for Kathimerini , a center line –politically- newspaper

that continues to use the traditional 40x 60 cm format , uses documentaries
from various sources including National geographic /BBC.

And here are the most interesting cases form the nation-wide newspapers and
magazines nowadays :

Newspapers:

Espresso , a gossip newspaper , in mid 2007 in its

Sunday edition , started offering a compilation of
hits from Greek singers and still continues .. From
their 30th iissue they offered a series of movies
from classic comedians, as eg Luis de Funes .
Starting March 2008 , its Saturday issue includes
a full album from legendary western rock groups
Among the groups are Boston , Judas Priest, Saxon
and others

Thema , the highest sold Sunday newspaper, offers

blockbusters and sporadically Greeks. Movies
passed via this newspaper are Zorba the greek, Miss
Congeniality , Lake house , Blue velvet , Finding
Neverland, Die hard 1 / 2 , keeping mum, View from
the top ,Enemy at the gates and more Several fo
these movies have after half and more year aired in
the Greek television

Elefterotypia the above referred very popular newspaper

,once per month , offers a thematic 3-movie subject collection.
There are famous movies but of the era of 90s and then.
Several subjects so far included for Nazis , Agatha Crhistie ,
UFOs ,time plays ,thrillers and more subjects to follow

Ethnos the above refered newspaper on August 08 offered for

the whole month each ‘working day’ from their stock ‘material’
including from Thema’s collection, that has more recently been
acquired by Ethnos .
 Here is Eleftheros Typos another newspaper
that offered a series books from DK on
management
On August 2008 everyday they offered one CD
or DVD from their collection with Greek movies
each Saturday for example , or international
movie each Sunday.

Vima the most selling nationwide newspaper(after Thema ) , offers classical

music every Saturday with the auspices of Deutsche Gramophon

Magazines :
Pista , the first music magazine offering CDs , is today publishing two monthly
music magazines under the names Pista and Palko (both mean stage !)offering 3
CDs for a €10 price . Pista os for popular music and Palko for traditional music
Zapping : A quite popular TV magazine . In its ‘full edition’, they offer a 4 CD
collection from popular singers , with 2 Cds each issue . Cost of full 4CD case €
14 .
Tiletheatis : With contract with Finos – a famous Greek movie studio - they offer
a Greek blockbuster movie from 60’s Cost per issue: €7 comparing to 1.5 for
magazine alone.

Another paradox example for company offering oriented enclosures:

A series of publications, owned by a group
that owns a TV channel , a book and mag
/newspaper publishing house and several
radio stations. .
The publishing house called Modern Times , publishes the economic newspaper
Ependitis (investor ). Starting from ca 2005 it offered in its only Saturday edition
, one Greek movie of 60s in dual DVD , one cartoon in VCD and several
pamphlets. A total of 10-11 offerings. The CDs and DVDs are offered in carton
envelopes. The newspaper stopped the Greek movies offer in the number 116
and then replaced with music CDs in slim DVD plastic case
The second side of the above dual DVD series was with one b/w English movie
(40-60s? ), replaced then Italians and ‘western spaghetti movies’ (cowboys etc )
then with Sherlock Holmes (inspector )type series,(as well Rex the dog and
Maigret ) etc
As for summer 2008 the newspaper offers two audio CDs , a summer hit
collection of 12 CDs with 20 songs each (10 Greek 10 American of 60s ) and one
CD with Greek poets . From September 08 they offer a collection of 30 Cds with
rebetiko , the older greek folk format .

The company published a weekly TV program magazine TiVo on start 2006 in two
editions. The full edition costed €3 and offered a dual side DVD for about 40
issues in carton envelope . The first side was with series of movies from famous
actors. The second side with epic movies from Cinecitta and classical ‘western
spaghetti’. They then replaced the dual DVDs with simple Dvds offered in slim
plastic case and raised the price to 4 Euros . IN more recent issues they offer 3
versions (1) a reprint of an old music magazine with foreign music , together with
one CD with 20 songs of 60s at price of 5 euro (2) version with old dramas and
another from their collection and little later (3) a series of cooking guides (book
and DVD ) with a diversification of targets for the 60s albums between Athens
and remain Greece . and possibly due to low audience

1-

Their newer magazine Avanti , started as a gossip magazine on early 2007 ,

offering one Greek movie of 80s (mostly comedies). After 10-15 issues they
offered a second disk with music collections from their radio stations and more
recently a reissue of the mini series of Franco Jefirelli , Jesus. but continuing their
80s offer. From nearly end of 2007 they re-ofered movies of 60’s in slim plastic
case with western spaghetti movies together with the continuation of the series
of 80s movies

This company is totally full issue minded. I once asked the company for buying
several of their older Greek movie DVDs and they insisted selling me the full
edition of Ependitis or Tivo !!! (magazine with all the enclosures )

Another drawback for this media group: most of their DVDs had flaws in the
video processing ,esp for the 2007 period.

By closing the subject , I asked a lawyer about the legality status of these
offerings . His answer is very clear: These Cds /DVDs are absolutely legal as the
CDs and DVDs offered in the stores