Police seize pirated CDs, nab alleged manufacturers
Evi Mariani, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police confiscated 273,000 pirated video compact discs (VCDs) and audio compact discs (CDs) from three locations in Greater Jakarta over the weekend, police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani revealed on Wednesday.
"In subsequent raids, we also detained seven suspects of copyrights violations," he told a media conference.
Detective top officer Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang explained that the discs contained music and movies both from local and international industries.
The operation was based on complaints filed by the Recording Industry Association (ASIRI) and the Video Film Importers Association (Asirevi) in July, suspecting distribution of pirated VCDs, CDs, and DVDs, a violation to Law No. 19/2002 on copyrights.
The police investigation led them to a medium-scale CD duplicating industry in Tangerang, where the police confiscated 12 machines, including machines to produce blank CDs and Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) from high grade polycarbonate or raw plastic.
The manufacturer allegedly belonged to PT Dimension Multi Digital Star.
The police arrested the company's director Ati Susanti, the assistant to the director A Siung and company manager Jenvanter Silalahi.
Along with the machines, the police also seized 47,000 pirated VCDs, CDs and DVDs, 11 tons of polycarbonate, a minivan and a computer.
In the next operation, the police raided PT Karya Guna Sukses Pratama, also in Tangerang, confiscated 3,000 pirated VCDs and CDs, six duplicating machines, eight kilograms of polycarbonate and a minivan.
The police arrested its president director Slamet Wijoyo and commissioner Edy.
The third raid was at a warehouse in Pademangan, North Jakarta, where the two companies stocked their production. From the warehouse police confiscated 223,000 pirated discs and a minivan and detained two other people: Slamet Riyadi, a driver, and Sularso, a packaging worker.
The discs contained video clips of national musicians like Iwan Fals, Ebiet G. Ade, national movies, TV series, and Indian movies, the police revealed.
Also attending the media conference, Arnel Affandi of ASIRI said music piracy had caused a state loss of an estimated Rp 1.19 trillion rupiah from the potential value-added tax in 2003 alone.
"Meanwhile, the national music industry suffered losses of an estimated Rp 16 trillion in 2003 because of piracy," he added.
He lauded the police for the operation, saying that this was the first time the police ever confiscated a DVD duplicating machine.
Although there had been similar operations, the prosecution of such case was mostly unheard by the public.
"Since early this year, we have detected that many of the pirated DVDs on sale in Indonesia were no longer imported," Arnel said.