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.