Antipiracy campaign launched

Antipiracy campaign launched

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia, and other Asian countries, is indeed a large,
compelling market for all types of consumer products from all
over the world.

With such huge potential, however, the area has become a
sitting duck for pirates eying trademark and intellectual
property rights including those targeting optical discs,
especially the new format of digital video discs (DVD).

"Why would I buy original DVD titles? They are so expensive
compared to the pirated ones. Pirated DVDs and those original
ones are of the same quality more or less," said Ricardo, an IT
engineer working for a company in Central Jakarta.

The pirated DVDs are sold at between Rp 30,000 to Rp 50,000
(US$ 3.37 to $5.61) depending on the title. Meanwhile, the
originals cost some Rp 180,000 to Rp 250,000 per title.

Ricardo said that the case was different with VCDs where the
pirated discs were of lower, poorer quality when compared to the
original discs.

"Let's face it, most of us do not give attention to such
matters. We will be happy enough to get good products at a low
price, even if they are pirated," he said with a grin.

Ricardo, as well as those who buy pirated goods, might have a
strong argument but what they may not realize is that they could
cause problems for others.

Not only those working for major film studios in Hollywood
thousands of miles away, but maybe their own neighbors who are
working as local film distributors, theater gate keepers and
Indonesia's own film workers.

Of course, pirates do not pay a single rupiah of tax to the
government. The list goes on.

These are the reasons given by state officials and industrial
representatives during the launch of the declaration 2003 as
"Anti-Piracy Action Year in Asia" with the tagline "Nothing Beats
the Real Thing: Say 'No' to Piracy" on Wednesday.

The loss is so huge that the Motion Pictures Association (MPA)
launches the DVD Rewards program to beat pirates in eight Asian
countries, including Indonesia, with South Korea being the first
country to launch such a campaign on Feb. 14.

The six other countries are Chinese Taipei, India, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

MPA represents major film studios in the United States and it
estimates that the U.S. motion picture industry loses more than
$3 billion annually in potential worldwide revenue due to piracy.

Last year, there were some 6 million pirated DVDs seized in
Asia, or 87 percent of pirated DVDs seized the world over.

"It is shared losses for both movie producers in America and
local industries here," said MPA Asia Pacific's director of the
regional optical disc office, Richard O'Neill during a press
conference on Friday.

"Pirated DVDs enable moviegoers to watch a new film even
before it is released in the local market," he said.

O'Neill joined Indonesian officials and industry
representatives to launch the DVD Rewards program at Planet
Hollywood on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta.

Also present were two other MPA executives, vice president and
regional director Asia Pacific anti piracy operations, Michael C.
Ellis and director of operations, Vincent Y.K. Koon.

MPA is providing a hotline telephone number 0-800-1-672-672
with full confidentiality for people to give information on
factories manufacturing pirated DVDs.

There is a $150,000 reward for a tip that leads to a
successful raid, said Ellis.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Intellectual Property
Society, Gunawan Suryomurcito, strengthened O'Neill's argument by
saying that Indonesian companies lost some $28 million from
piracy last year.

"Lost profits means lost chances for new investment. This will
in turn cause less job creation," he said.

"The government also suffers as pirates do not pay taxes,
whereas legitimate companies do."

Director general of intellectual property rights at the
ministry of justice and human rights, Abdul Bari Azed, admitted
that Indonesia had yet to have a solid system of handling cases
related to intellectual property rights.

"The 2002 Law No. 19 on Intellectual Property Rights will go
into effect in June so we can expect that piracy cases may
decrease as the law calls for greater punishment.

"Currently we are also drafting a government regulation on
optical discs protection especially targeting factories producing
illegal DVDs and VCDs," he said.

O'Neill said that pirated DVDs had caused a significant drop
in the number of people visiting theaters.

"If a theaters have to be closed down, surely it is a local
one as we do not have theaters here.

"We do suffer losses in DVDs sales but if there is a decrease
of some 30 percent at the theaters, whose job is lost? It is
yours for sure."

Secretary general of the Indonesian Video Recording Importer
Association (Asirevi), Wihadi Wiyanto said that there were only
some 600 theaters nationwide significantly down from about 3,000
in 1995, before the VCD entered Indonesia.

"The theaters are losing the battle even with low-quality
pirated VCDs. Now imagine if the high-quality pirated DVDs are
available in such a great amount," he said.

"This condition creates a difficult situation for national
movie makers as they can only distribute their films with 21
theater chain."