Video recording importers society upset over piracy

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Video Recording Importers says it suffers losses of billions of rupiah every year due to the rampant piracy of video and laser disc recordings.

Chairman Irawan Soekarno told The Jakarta Post yesterday that 95 percent of the video and laser disc films sold at rental shops and stores are illegally reproduced. These illegal copies, which do not bear the Indonesian Censor Board's stickers, are sold at cheaper prices, he said.

Association members who import around 500 films and make 100 copies of each annually sell a laser disc recording for between Rp 80,000 (US$33) and Rp 120,000. Illegally produced copies sell for between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000.

"We suffer losses of billions of rupiah every year," Irawan lamented. He said the illegally reproduced films also endanger the young people's morality because those copies are not censored.

"The government should really concentrate on fighting illegal importers. The pirates cause the government a loss of at least Rp 5 billion every year because they don't pay taxes or censor board fees."

Irawan welcomed the government's plan to intensify its campaign against violations of intellectual property rights, as announced by Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono on Thursday. Moerdiono heads a team in charge of enforcing Presidential Decree No. 34 on the protection of intellectual property rights.

Indonesia is among the developing countries that the United States has accused of rampant intellectual property rights violations, despite the fact that Indonesia passed a law on intellectual property rights in 1987.

Article 44 of the law states that anyone found copying intellectual works for business purposes without a permit is liable to seven years imprisonment and a fine of up to Rp 100 million (US$38,000).

Official figures compiled by the International Intellectual Property Alliance show that in 1995 alone the United States suffered a loss of US$15 million because its films were illegally reproduced and sold in Indonesia.

Irawan said the video and laser disc pirates make a huge profit because the bootleg copies sell much faster than the legal ones.

It takes three weeks to a month before the association can sell the films it imports because it first has to have the films reviewed by the Censor Board and then copied in Japan.

Indonesia does not have the facilities to copy the films, he said. Taiwan and Hong Kong are among other countries that do have the facilities. The illegally reproduced copies are imported from such countries.

"While the legal copies are being processed, the illegal copies are already on the market," he said. "By the time the association members are ready to sell, the films no longer have a demand."

One association member suffered a loss of Rp 1.5 billion last year because his distributors returned 100 unsold titles, Irawan said.

"It's tough to compete with the illegal importers because they have a worldwide network," Irawan said.

An owner of a video and laser disc rental shop in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, told the Post that he sold a greater number of illegal copies because of "market demand".

"I'm not afraid of selling illegal merchandise. All shops in Jakarta sell and rent illegal copies," he said.

However, he said he also kept legal copies in small numbers just in case police raid his shop. (01)