Compact disc pirates arrested

Compact disc pirates arrested

JAKARTA (JP): City police arrested 14 suspects yesterday and
confiscated thousands of compact discs in their operation to
crack down on copyright violators.

Nearly 2,250 audio compact discs, 87 CD-ROMs (compact discs -
read only memory), 10 CD-Is (interactive compact discs), 300
floppy disks and 74 copied computer manuals were netted in the
raid.

Yesterday's operation was carried out at three shopping
centers: Citraland, ITC, and Glodok.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko pointed out
that some of the pirated compact discs had been copied here,
while others had been copied abroad and smuggled into Indonesia.
Those copied here were marketed without trademarks, he said,
while the smuggled ones were distributed with trademarks.

A suspect, Dedi, said that he used to sell one pirated audio
compact disc at a price of Rp 10,000 (US$4), as opposed to the
original retail price of Rp 35,000. A pirated CD-ROM normally
costs Rp 30,000 ($12), while an original generally runs between
Rp 70,000 to Rp 150,000. Copied books sell for Rp 40,000, while
originals can cost up to Rp 130,000.

Bambang said the suspects violated the 1987 Law No. 7 on
copyrights, under which a violator can be sentenced to seven
years in jail and/or fined Rp 100 million ($46,000)

"The police will enforce the copyright law by intensifying
operations against piracy," Bambang said.

In order to support the government's policy, he said that
National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman Astrosemito had instructed
police personnel to hold regular crackdowns to reduce piracy and
smuggling in the city.

According to Bambang one of the major constraints to
successfully carrying out such operations is the solidarity among
distributors. "If a distributor knows that the police are
carrying out an operation, he or she will call the others so that
they can close their shops quickly." (29)