The concept of illegal copyright is pretty much nonexistent here – I’ve already talked about one of my favorite places in Amman (the Hamoudeh Pirated DVD store). I got a book of Physics demonstrations for Christmas (woohoo!) and the head of my department really liked it. He asked to borrow it, and then came back with two copies – what? Magician? No, he asked the copy machine guy at our school (yeah, we aren’t allowed to make our own copies… weird) to tear the binding off my book so he could put the pages through the copier and make one for him. Then, the binding on my book was glued back on (Sounds like a rough process, right? Well it was. His brand new copy looks great, and mine’s a little worse for the wear).

As funny as I thought that was, and as little as I care, it seems that the Jordanian government is starting to care. There are rumors abound that they are cracking down on copyright issues and that my beloved Hamoudeh Pirated DVDs incorporated will be shutting down! The faculty at the school are a little freakity freaked out – where will we get our cheap thrills now? A group of us is planning a big trip this weekend to buy out the place.

Let me know if you want anything before it’s too late…