Association complains over stickers on pirated VCDs

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)