Association complains over stickers on pirated VCDs

JAKARTA (JP): An executive of the Association of the Indonesian Video Recording Industry expressed concern on Friday over the rampant use of illegal hologram stickers on pirated video compact discs (VCD).

Association secretary-general Wihadi Wiyanto said that this practice could cause the state losses of up to Rp 2 billion (US$266,666).

Wiyanto said that many shops in the city selling pirated VCDs had been asked by a man, identified as Acan, to buy the illegal stickers for Rp 2,000 a piece for their VCDs to hoodwink buyers into believing the products were genuine.

Wiyanto said that according to shop owners, Acan, who was also a VCD trader in Glodok in West Jakarta, targeted selling one million stickers this month, starting this week.

"We believe Acan was able to meet his target because he was colluding with officials from the Ministry of Information, which oversees the distribution of VCDs," he said.

Wiyanto, together with six other association board members, visited the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation on Friday to submit data on the alleged malfeasance.

Among the data handed over to the watchdog were samples of the hologram stickers printed by a company that produces securities papers in Kudus, Central Java, Wiyanto said.

"With the use of the stickers, the pirated VCDs look like the genuine and legal ones," he said.

He said legal VCDs were sold for between Rp 30,000 and 60,000 each, much more than the pirated VCD ones which retail for between Rp 12,000 and Rp 15,000.

According to Wiyanto, the Directorate General of Radio, Television and Film at the Ministry of Information issued a decree in 1997 to set up a body to watch the distribution of VCDs in the country.

He said the body members consisted of officials from the ministry and representatives of private company PT Cakaramindo Inti Perdana appointed to be in charge of the sales of the legal hologram stickers.

The association had often protested the appointment of the private company since the firm knew nothing about VCD recording, he said.

Since then, all VCD producers -- as members of the association -- have been required to buy the legal stickers for Rp 1,000 each, he said

On Nov. 6, however, the directorate general also issued another decree tolerating the sales of pirated VCDs until next February, Wiyanto said.

He said the association strongly rejected the issuance of the decree as it feared it would affect the sales of legal VCDs.

As illegal VCD producers did not pay taxes and royalties, they could sell their products at much lower prices than the legal producers.

Teten Masduki, the coordinator of ICW, said that he would conduct an audit on the data submitted by the association.

If the data was found to be accurate, Teten said would report the corruption allegation to the police and the prosecutor's office.

"We would also report it to international court for violations on property rights," he said. (jun)