Brazilian Street Markets Aren't As Fun Without Piracy

Brazilian commenter KaiserSpiegel tells the story of the sad decline of his local street market following an anti-piracy police raid in today’s Speak-Up on Kotaku. I’m from Rio de Janeiro, and as many of you may know, Brazil is a piracy paradise. Next to my college there’s this popular market with lots of stands selling everything you can imagine, from batteries to Xbox 360 Kinect bundles and PC pieces. [[link]] It also used to be the major consumer piracy and counterfeit market in the city. All “brands” of sneakers, any model for R$59,00. Leaked movies and games, before official release, you could find there. But then police came (possibly under strong pressure from the companies, because they could have acted much earlier) and confiscated the stuff and arrested some people.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Life went on and the market was open again. Counterfeits and piracy were there again, even with police presence. To avoid any more bad press, police tolerance was no more and now you can’t see pirate games on the shelves. Well, I don’t know if they still have them, because I don’t buy piracy, so I don’t ask if they keep them hidden, but I used to go there and see people playing. The only place I saw Deathsmiles for 360 running was there (the guy raped the continue). Now the market is so boring that the salesmen, instead of playing their pirate games to kill some time, are [[link]] playing domino and that makes me come back home sooner and watch YouTube to see new games. About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That’s why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak-Up. That’s the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku [[link]] at large. Every weekday we’ll pull one of the best Speak-Up posts we can find and highlight it here.