Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Was there ever such a thing a Copyright Law in Turkey?

    
   When I first arrived in Turkey one of the first things that I noticed was the use of Disney characters at a park not far from the airport. I would see the familiar Mickey, Donald and Pluto; but on closer inspection Mickey was wearing a different color of shorts, and Donald may be donning a bushy Turkish style mustache. These slight changes would not repeal the Disney lawyers if that was in the United States. My love for Turks who love American culture increased when I discovered Turkish mockbusters on YouTube. The term mockbuster is often used to describe straight to video releases that are meant to fool consumers who think they are purchasing the blockbuster, for example instead of Jack the Giant Slayer the mockbuster would be Jack the Giant Killer.

     Mockbuster would not be the correct term though for the films released during the 1970s and 1980s though, they were straight forward rip offs.  Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved the World) while had a somewhat original story, lifted stock footage from Star Wars and the its score as well. For this reason it is known as the Turkish Star Wars.
 
For those that didn’t like the new Superman that was released this summer, perhaps Turkish super man would be more to your liking.

 
 Then there was Turkish Spiderman..
 
 How about some Turkish Star Trek..
 
 Finally if superheroes or space isn’t your cup of chi how about a practically shot by shot remake of The Exorcist(Şeytan)?
 

 
 In a way you really cannot blame Turkey for recycling these ideas especially considering in the last year or two every single one of those examples have been remade in the United States.

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