Dealing DVDs: Movie pirates find Indonesia a safe haven

Tony Ryanto, Contributor/Jakarta

Just a few days after The Passion of the Christ premiered in the U.S. and Canada, a friend of mine told me he had already seen it.

Indeed, the Passion is everywhere. It is on the big screen, but it is also available on the streets, where vendors sell the DVD for a fraction of the price of a movie ticket.

The vendors have been told that the film grossed impressively in the U.S. and Canada, making more than US$ 364,4 million within 9 weeks of wide release.

Pirated DVDs are sold for between Rp 7,500 (US 80 cents) and Rp 10,000 per piece, while the price in downtown Jakarta is Rp 5,000 -- possibly the cheapest DVDs in the world.

Even at Rp 5,000, pirates profit as much as Rp 2,000 per piece.

The pirates buy discs for between Rp 700 to Rp 1,000, and duplicating costs are dependent on the number of discs.

Observers say the price of pirated DVDs is tumbling, due to fierce competition among vendors and the fact that one duplicating machine can produce hundreds of thousands of copies within a very short time.

The illegal VCD business is run by a number of big pirates. It involves huge amounts of money and a tangled web of people.

Late last year, police launched one of the biggest raids against piracy. As a result, hundreds of thousands of illegal discs were seized, and pirates were prosecuted. For some time, the pirated disc business seemed to die down, but today business is booming.

Those who can't tolerate the poor quality of pirated films will have to wait six months to see the Passion in local cinemas. While the authorized VCDs of this controversial movie are to be released in October this year, according to a source.

The home video business in Indonesia is unique: More than 90 percent of the market is in the hands of pirates, while the sales of legitimate VCDs and DVDs make up a mere six to seven percent.

Strangely, legal video businesses do not seem to care much about the presence of pirates.

"We are doing fairly well. The number of our outlets throughout Indonesia is going up, parallel with the increasing number of shopping malls in big cities, as well as small towns," said Handi Jatna, managing director of VISION Home Entertainment, a spokesman of Disc Tarra, and Tjianan Djie president director of Video Ezy.

However, illegal vendors are not doing as well as one might assume.

The so-called two-in-one or three-in-one DVDs -- for example, a Jurassic Park DVD comprises Jurassic Park and its sequels, The Lost World: Jurrasic Park and Jurassic Park III -- sells for Rp 5,000. That means the price of one Jurassic Park series is less than Rp 2,000.

True, the quality of pirated new releases, such as the Passion, Van Helsing and Troy, is not of a high standard.

However, only a few people are willing to buy an authorized copy for Rp 49,000 or Rp 59,000. Why pay Rp 40,000 to Rp 50,000 more?

Also, there are those that simply hate piracy. They say viewing pirated DVDs hurts their eyes, moreover it is against the law.

Also, if you buy a pirated DVD, it is most likely an uncensored version. Legitimate or legal VCDs, on the other hand, are censored -- though some actually prefer the uncensored version.

Over the last few years, the number of legal video sales and rental outlets has increased substantially. Non-pirated discs are now available in supermarkets and plazas, including Carrefour, Hero, Sogo and Macro.

The Disc Tarra group holds the franchise of major U.S. studios, including Fox, Columbia/Sony, Universal, Paramount, MGM/UA and DreamWorks, Hallmark, Animal Planet, Discovery, National Geographic, the Wrestling channel plus a host of independent films.

There are three Tarra Megastores in Jakarta and almost 100 smaller outlets, called Disc Tarra stores, located throughout the country. The group is now in control of some 40 Odiva video rental outlets nationwide.

"This is good because we have been in this business for only two or three months," said a Tarra spokesman.

"Our highest price is Rp 59,000. And the number of our titles has surpassed the 10,000 mark. We have our own reproduction center and we come out with some 100 titles a month," he added.

Another major video distributor is VISION Home Entertainment. It is the franchisee of Disney and Warner products. After eight years of operation, it now has a collection of almost 5,000 tiles, including independent ones.

Miramax and New Line, the so-called mini majors, have their own franchisees here and so do a number of small film/distribution companies. American classics such as Casablanca, Quo Vadis, Roman Holiday, Ben Hur and The Sound of Music are now available.

In short, movie lovers can now choose from more than 15,000 titles. Apart from Odiva, there is the Indonesian Video Ezy (Ezy is based in Australia), which has now some 125 rental stores nationwide.

Ezy's Tjianan Djie says "Our total stock increases by an average of one a week, or by about 125 a year. Each outlet has between 5,000 to 10,000 copies."

In the U.S., VCDs are almost history, while DVDs and VHS tapes prevail. Here, VCDs are still the most popular when it comes to legitimate videos.

On the black market, the most popular copies today are DVDs. The price of a DVD player ranges from above Rp 1 million to as low as Rp 500,000 a unit.

A source says there are now five million DVD-player owners against 30 million VCD-player owners.

In the U.S., a film is considered a box-office hit if it grosses at least $100 million domestically.

In Indonesia, with a total population of 220 million, a film is considered a box office champ if it is viewed by at least 1 million people, like Eiffel I'm In Love, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta, Jelangkung, Sherina or Tusuk Jelangkung.

In Japan, sales of a popular DVD like Harry Potter might reach 3 million copies.

"In Indonesia, we are lucky if one title sells between 40,000 and 45,000 copies. We are happy if it sells only 1,000 copies," said VISION's Jatna.

Video production and distribution were previously managed and supervised by the Office of the State Minister of Communications and Information. Now, the Office of the State Minister of Tourism and Culture is in charge. Copyright is the concern of the justice ministry and antipiracy campaigns are conducted by the National Police and the Justice and Human Rights Ministry. The current maximum penalty for video pirates is Rp 5 billion, or seven years in jail.