Bekasi resident arrested for book piracy
Bekasi resident arrested for book piracy
BEKASI, West Java (JP): Police have confiscated a set of
printing machines, four trucks of books worth Rp 1 billion
(US$422,654) and arrested a person suspected of illegally
reprinting books and dictionaries.
"The pirated books and dictionaries include those whose
copyrights are held by the Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New
York," Bekasi police chief, Lt. Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, said
Saturday.
Police said that the suspect, identified as Sup, 56,
was arrested Friday at his residence in the Pondok Pekayon Indah
housing complex, Bekasi, while the pirated books were seized from
his printing factory two kilometers away.
Alex said that police have also questioned 11 people who
worked at the printing factory owned by Sup.
He added that he arrested the suspect after receiving a report
from one of the publishers whose books were being pirated.
The pirated books include the English-Indonesia and the
Indonesia-English dictionaries by John M. Echols and Hassan
Shadily; the Germany-Indonesia dictionary by Adolf Heuken SJ;
Sosiologi dan Antropologi (Sociology and Anthropology) by Nursal
Luth; Panca Sila dan Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 by CST Kansil;
Manajemen Pemasaran by Philip Kotler; Sistem Akuntansi by
Mulyadi; IQRA Sistem Belajar Membaca Al-Qur'an Cepat by As'ad
Humam; Standar Akuntansi Keuangan by Salemba Empat publisher;
Japan-Indonesia dictionary by Dian Karya publisher and Manajemen
Keuangan.
The books were originally printed in Indonesia by PT Gramedia
Pustaka Utama, PT Balai Pustaka and other publishers.
The original copyright of the English-Indonesia dictionary is
held by the Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
The promotion manager of PT Gramedia, Aris Buntarman, told The
Jakarta Post that his partner from Cornell University blamed his
company, accusing him of illegally reprinting the books.
Aris said that he had received complaints from buyers for the
inferior printing qualities of those books before he reported the
case to the police.
Sup told the press on Saturday that he had been pirating books
for five months.
He admitted to spending more than Rp 16 million on paper
alone. He said some of the books had been sold for Rp 10,000 per
copy to students of privately run universities in Jakarta and
Bandung, West Java.
"The books sold well due to the lower prices I offered, less
than half the prices of the original," said Sup. (kod)