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Jakarta Post

Pirated DVD business flourishing amid high demand

Twenty-four-year-old Wiwit Purnamasari loves a good movie and is a fan of many  Hollywood actors, but she would never buy a legitimate DVD or go to the movie theatre

Hasyim Widhiarto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, May 17, 2010

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Pirated DVD business flourishing amid high demand

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wenty-four-year-old Wiwit Purnamasari loves a good movie and is a fan of many  Hollywood actors, but she would never buy a legitimate DVD or go to the movie theatre.

Instead of draining her monthly salary by watching new releases on the silver screen or by buying an original DVD, the resident of Cibubur, East Jakarta, prefers to buy pirated DVDs from street vendors or at shopping centers.

“Why should we spend money on an original DVD if we can get similar sound and picture quality from a pirated copy?” the tax accountant told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

Wiwit said Blok M market in South Jakarta was her favorite place to hunt for pirated DVDs.

On every visit, she said, she would buy four to 10 pirated DVDs. Every pirated DVD is sold for Rp 7,000 (77 US cents), which is around 10 times less than the average original DVD sold at authorized stores or a film sold at online stores.

“If we are sold a pirated DVD that does not work, most vendors will let us return it and choose another one,” Wiwit said.

Home to around 9.2 million residents, Jakarta has become a haven for pirated DVDs.

In February, the National Police arrested 16 suspects for allegedly running an illegal DVD and VCD duplication factory in a house in Pantai Indah Kapuk housing complex, North Jakarta.

The factory, which had been operating since last year, could produce up to 50,000 pirated DVDs and VCDs per day, using 103 personal computers to duplicate original movies.

A month later, the Jakarta police arrested two people for allegedly distributing porn DVDs across Greater Jakarta and also confiscated 75,000 DVDs in the raid.

“Just imagine, in 2009 we confiscated a total of 50,000 DVDs throughout the year, but today we seized 75,000 DVDs in just one raid,” head of the city police’s special crime unit Sr. Comr. Agus Sutisna said.

The two suspects were arrested as they were loading boxes packed with porn DVDs into a car in Taman Glodok Plaza, West Jakarta.

It probably should be surprising that the police were only able to seize 50,000 DVDs last year, when most malls in Jakarta are home to many vendors who openly sell thousands of pirated DVDs, video games and music CDs every day.

During a recent visit to Harco Glodok electronic shopping center, West Jakarta, last week, the Post observed many pirated DVD vendors operating at the center and along nearby streets with no attempt whatsoever at secrecy.

In an alley near the main entrance to the mall, dozens of people were browsing at several pirated DVD stores that displayed thousands of DVDs and hundreds of movie titles.

The stores were selling pirated copies of movies that were currently playing in Indonesian and American cinemas, including The Book of Eli, 3 Idiots and Iron Man 2.

In front of the stores, several employees sat on wooden chairs, busy packing thousands of pirated DVDs into plastic covers containing small prints of movie posters.

A store owner, who refused to be identified, said he sold old DVDs for Rp 2,000 each.

“But you can’t return them it if there’s something wrong with them,” he said.

Dede, another vendor, who sells pirated porn DVDs, said he bought the DVDs from a wholesale agent, also in Glodok, for Rp 2,800 per copy and then sold them to customers for Rp 5,000.

“I have a child and a wife to feed and these days finding a job is not easy,” he said in defense of his profession.

Many of Indonesia’s larger shopping malls also accommodate the illegal business.

In Depok Town Square (Detos) shopping mall, there is an entire section dedicated to pirated DVD stalls.

The mall also accommodates a 21 Cineplex theater next to the section in the same floor.

With more and more competitors flooding the market, but with no signs of a price war or any serious intervention by authorities, the illegal industry is flourishing in Indonesia’s capital and looks set to continue to do so.

“Just call me anytime to find out what’s new at our stall,” Yuli, a vendor in Detos, said.

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