Pirated VCDs seized in Bandung

BANDUNG: The customs and excise office here seized on Monday a steel container loaded with some 129,000 pirated Video Compact Discs (VCDs) of Indonesian movies transported from Singapore.

Chief of the customs and excise office I Ketut Sidikarya said that the illegal freight had entered a checkpoint in Gedebage in Bandung on Thursday.

"According to the document, the contents were supposed to be blank VCDs. But when we checked further, it turned out that all the discs had Indonesian movies on them," Sidikarya said. Losses to the state from the sales of pirated VCDs is estimated to reach Rp 1.2 billion.

The company that ordered the VCDs argued that it was all rejected export items.

"But based on the preliminary inquiry we suspect that the VCDs, which included titles such as Tarzan, Cinta di Awal 30, Daerah Jagoan, have been illegally copied," Sidikarya said. (25/edt)