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."