Bandung Internet shops close for fear of software piracy raids
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
It was about 10 a.m. and Hidayat, 32, looked nervous after talking to a friend on the telephone. He rushed into a room filled with 16 personal computers and announced that everyone had to leave. Hidayat quickly escorted the confused customers out of his warung (shop) Internet, better known as a warnet, on Jl. Surapati in Bandung.
"I am sorry but I have to close the shop immediately because there will be a blackout," he told people as they grumbled past him.
After the last customer had left, he bolted the front door of the shop and rounded up his workers, who set to work moving the computers into a small storeroom at the back of the shop.
The warnet, which is usually open for 17 hours a day and can take in an average of Rp 500,000 (US$52) a day, has been closed ever since, disappointing dozens of regular customers who rely on the shop for their Internet needs.
What had Hidayat so worried was not the possibility of a blackout, but a rumor that the authorities would raid his shop to check for pirated computer piracy. The warnet industry in Bandung has been thrown into chaos of because of these raids and rumors of raids.
Many warnet, particularly in north Bandung around Dago and Dipatiukur, where lots of university students use the shops to do research for assignments, have closed to avoid being raided.
Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people without access to their own Internet connections have had trouble finding an open warnet.
Rumors of raids spread quickly over the past week after news that two warnet had been raided and their owners fined up to Rp 100 million for violating the intellectual copyright law by using pirated software.
Ude Gunadi, 32, an employee at a printing company on Jl. Sukarno-Hatta who enjoys Internet chat rooms, complained that his normal warnet had been closed for the past four days.
"Chatting is fun and helps me kill time after work or while waiting for my wife to come home from work," said the regular warnet user.
Ude was much relieved after his regular warnet reopened using Linux software.
Hidayat said most of the warnet in Bandung were replacing their pirated Microsoft software with open source Linux software for economical reasons. A few are installing original Microsoft software.
"The cost of original Microsoft software can reach US$154 for just one PC, not including the Office program. I have heard the price of installing a complete software package can reach $379 per PC, and it might be higher for businesses like warnet. The software cannot be copied; one license for one PC," said Hidayat, who has been in the warnet business since 1999.
He said an open source system cost $129 at the most, and could be copied to run all 16 PCs at his warnet.
Open source software seems to be the most economically viable option for warnet operators, as indicated in an online poll. More than 71 percent of the 127 warnet operators who took part in the poll said they were switching to open source software.
About 14 percent of the respondents said they were installing original Microsoft software, 3 percent said they would just keep their shops closed for the time being and 10.4 percent said they would risk the raids.
The chairwoman of the Indonesian Internet Operators Association, Judith Monique Samantha, acknowledged that about 99 percent of warnet in Indonesia used pirated software for reasons of cost.
Judith encouraged warnet owners to switch to open source software out of respect for the law enforcement efforts of the software association and the police.
The Bandung Police are not prepared to disclose details of the reported warnet raids.
However, West Java Police detectives chief Comr. Nanang Avianto said the police had not received any requests to assist the software association in conducting raids on warnet in Bandung.
No one was available from Microsoft Indonesian to comment on the matter.