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)