Price the selling point for VCDs

Price the selling point for VCDs

By Pandaya

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian law prohibits it, the West keeps
condemning it, but the common people love it. The illegal
business of pirated Video Compact Discs (VCDs) is a robust one.

The supposedly illegal VCDs are available almost anywhere that
there is shopping, from glittery shopping malls to the flimsy
video rentals in narrow alleys in Jakarta and other cities across
Indonesia.

Police have occasionally raided notorious pirate VCD
tradecenters like Glodok Chinatown. However, this may be a
demonstration designed to quell public outcry. Business as usual
continues after one or two days.

Pirated VCDs remain a profitable business because of growing
public demand. Never mind that Japanese VCD players are expensive
-- people can still buy cheap imported ones from China and
Taiwan.

A Japanese VCD player costs more than Rp 1 million. If that
price is too expensive, you can have a Chinese brand for a mere
Rp 400,000, and the quality is not at all disappointing.

As the low cost hardware floods the local market, people can't
resist buying the low cost pirated VCD software.

"Why should I buy an original one for Rp 50,000 if I can have
a pirated one for a mere Rp 9,000," said Tony, a private
university student, who had just bought Tom and Jerry at an
upscale mall in Blok M, South Jakarta, and who showed no sign of
remorse for buying a VCD he knew was pirated.

The low price is the main reason people buy pirated VCDs. They
are aware of but not deterred by the relatively inferior picture
and sound quality of the illegal VCDs.

Pirated VCDs used to be sold mainly in the streets but you can
now also find them in air conditioned malls where rock music and
film soundtracks blare from shops selling the illicit goods.

Many shops offer both original and pirated VCDs. "Only a few
of the original versions sell in a day. People like to buy the
cheap pirated ones," said a shop attendant in a mall in Grogol,
West Jakarta.

The most common defect found in the pirated VCDs is distorted
sound and picture quality. In many cases, the disc stalls in the
middle of a scene. Often, the sound is so muted that you have to
turn the volume very high to understand the program. The
resulting hissing noise and the absence of treble will lessen the
enjoyment.

Some pirated VCD lovers have gleefully reported that the
latest films they bought at a roadside stall were so badly
recorded that they had "sour eyes" after watching them.

"It seemed that it was shot in the movie theater with a
handicam. You can see someone accidentally shot when he stood up
and left his seat," said Emi, a journalist.

But not all VCDs are that bad. If you are lucky, you can get
one with good pictures and sound. Some shop and stall owners even
go as far as assuring their customers to return for an exchange
if the CD is defective.

"You have to be choosy when you buy a pirated VCD," says
Yanto, who claims to have a vast collection of such CDs. "Have a
preview before you decide to buy it."

But Yanto said he was generally satisfied with the CD quality
for the money he spent. And what's more: he did not care when
asked whether he was aware that buying pirated CDs was against
the law.

"I will buy the original only if the price is not this
ridiculous," he said.

Santosa, an employee of a private company, likes to buy
original CDs only for audio because he says he will play music
again and again over the years; the quality of the sound is
everything.

"In the case of a VCD, you will need it for two or three
viewings and then give it away or resell it. You cannot see the
same movie time and again."

Santosa's argument explains why the pirated audio CD costs Rp
20,000, twice as expensive as the pirated VCD which has more
technology.

The business of illicit CDs continues to thrive as long as law
enforcement is weak and collusion between corrupt government
officials and businesspeople remains mutually profitable.