Street vendors invited to sell legal products
JAKARTA (JP): Songwriters, disappointed by the authorities' lack of law enforcement in curbing the piracy of music recordings on tapes, audio compact discs (CD) and video compact discs (VCD), have decided to invite street vendors to trade in the original products.
Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Songwriters and Music Arrangers (Pappri) Tb. Sadikin Zuchra said on Wednesday that the association would cooperate with the city administration and the Indonesian Recording Industry Association (ASIRI) to implement the new approach next week.
"We will start with street vendors in the Glodok area (West Jakarta) because they are the most numerous," Sadikin told The Jakarta Post, referring to the more than 100 traders selling a gigantic collection of pirated VCDs of local and foreign songs and films.
The Glodok traders, including those running the illegal business from their permanent kiosks, seemingly receive strong support from the local authorities, including the police.
A number of police officers can often be seen sitting and hanging around in their uniforms in the kiosks and among the street vendors to protect the prohibited business.
The interview with Sadikin took place at the Central Jakarta District Court while waiting for the trial of an alleged bootlegged VCD and CD distributor, Joel Setiawan Tendyanto, who was arrested by police on May 1 this year on Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta, not far from the Glodok area.
The police confiscated about 700,000 pirated VCDs during the arrest.
According to Sadikin, the new Pappri direct approach to the street vendors would lead the vendors helping the songwriters by selling the original versions.
"The vendors must know that most of the songwriters earn much less money than the vendors do because they receive no money from their songs (pirated for the illegal products)," Sadikin said.
The city administration formally prohibits the Glodok illegal business, which --- according to rough estimation --- could have a turnover of billions of rupiah per day. But the ban has never been effective as the business has been growing bigger and bigger with traders already occupying almost half of Jl. Hayam Wuruk, causing chronic traffic jams almost everyday.
In the morning of May 13, a team from National Police Headquarters raided the location when the traders were just about to open for business. The raid failed to produce any arrests but almost turned into riot when the traders ran amok and vandalized a number of nearby buildings and shops, causing billions of rupiah worth of losses and damage.
A few days later, the business in the area, located very closed to a police station, was back to normal.
Dozens of songwriters, mostly those who compose dangdut music, had been impatiently waiting for Joel's trial to start since about 10 a.m. in the morning. At 1:30 p.m. they decided to meet the head of the court Subardi.
In the meeting, Sadikin told Subardi that the number of people in the piracy business had been on the rise.
"We have heard that many players in the narcotics trade have shifted to the piracy business because, if arrested, they would get light punishment," Sadikin told Subardi.
Sadikin then showed Subardi copies of papers compiled by ASIRI on the piracy cases, which had been tried in the capital.
According to the list, the defendants were only sentenced to 10 months at the most even though Law No. 12/1997 on recording piracy stipulates that a defendant can be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.
Several songwriters, present at the meeting, said that they only received Rp 300,000 per year at the most in royalties for their songs because of the piracy.
"We have estimated that we could receive at least Rp 10 million a year if there were no piracy," songwriter Denmus said.
Another dangdut songwriter, Proen A.W., even said that some producers made pirated versions of their releases to get money.
The trial of Joel, who failed to appear in court on Tuesday due to illness, has been put back to next Wednesday. (jaw)