Live and let live? Piracy may be here to stay

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has enacted scores of regulations to curb rising piracy in the country following the implementation of Law No. 19/2002 on intellectual property rights. Still, thanks to the lack of law enforcement, people can still buy pirated products, especially music and video, in almost every corner of all cities in the country. The Jakarta Post sheds light on the issue through this cover story.

The face of lite-jazz singer Andien turned sour when The Jakarta Post asked her comment on the unbridled trade of pirated goods.

"Some of our musicians live solely on their earnings from making music and those who illegally reproduce their work have stripped them of their means of livelihood. I am lucky because I still live with my parents who still have enough money although all my albums are pirated," she said.

The twenty-year-old musician was right about piracy having sapped the livelihood of the country's musicians.

A number of musicians have grown desperate about the rampant piracy and decided to stop writing songs or seek greener pastures in neighboring countries.

Singer James F. Sundah who was popular in the 1970s with his song Lilin-lilin Kecil (Little Candles) called it a day with songwriting and opted to perform live to make ends meet while songwriter Bertje Van Houten found a way to release his songs in Singapore and Malaysia.

Yes, piracy is so rampant that it has become a part of our everyday lives.

Pirated materials, especially films and music are available at almost every street corner in the city at extremely low prices.

The constant high demand for pirated materials has in fact given vendors the confidence to claim their products are authentic.

Buyers of pirated goods might find it funny to find an antipiracy sticker with an X sign and "stop piracy" warning stamped on the back cover of pirated DVDs, VCDs and CDs, a feature usually found on original materials.

In fact, vendors of pirated goods have found a way to live in peaceful co-existence with outlets selling original materials.

Vendors selling pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs are found setting up their stalls just a step away from one of the city's oldest music stores on Jl. Sabang, in Central Jakarta, and buyers who have just shopped inside the air-conditioned store always pay an obligatory visit to the stall.

Vendors of pirated materials have also shown formidable perseverance in conducting their business.

Dealing with lax enforcement of the intellectual property laws as indicated by on-and-off raids, vendors engage in guerrilla- style marketing tactics.

Vendors at one of the city's thriving centers for pirated DVDs inside an upmarket shopping center in Central Jakarta, for instance, are still operating only a few meters away from their previous location.

Unafraid of possible raids, vendors put up signs showing where visitors could find them at their new location. Once would-be buyers get there it is business as usual.

With the market already saturated with pirated goods -- accounting for 90 percent of all products -- copyright holders have little hope of curbing rampant piracy.

"We only hope that law enforcement could reduce it by 60 percent. Thirty percent is the benchmark from which we could start a healthy business. It is just not possible to entirely curb it," Budi Satrio, the Indonesian Association of Recording Company (Asiri)'s antipiracy department head told The Jakarta Post.

Of the pirated goods, 60 percent are available in Jakarta and surrounding areas.

Budi said that although the government should be given credit for initiating a campaign against copyright infringement, their foot soldiers do not sense the urgency of combating piracy.

"We have joined the police and officials from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in frequent raids, but they were at a loss as to what to do next with vendors who are caught red-handed selling pirated goods," he said.

In combating piracy, Asiri has ruled out the option of lowering the price of original materials saying that by doing so the recording company would be considering copyright violators as their rightful competitors.

"It is an uneven competition we pay between Rp 5,000 (52 US cents) and Rp 15,000 for value-added tax to the government while pirated DVDs are available at that value," Budi said.

The film and recording industry suffers potential losses of Rp 16 trillion each year from piracy, while the government loses Rp 1 trillion each year in unpaid taxes.

The severest blow to the film industry from rampant piracy was the closure of movie theaters in some of the country's major city like Yogyakarta, Semarang and Surakarta and also the majority of regency capitals.

The availability of new film releases at low prices has encouraged people to enjoy home entertainment and eventually killed off the habit of going to the cinema.