Bandung Internet shops close for fear of software piracy raids
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.