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Filmmakers, musicians join forces with police
Joint forces: Art activists pose after meeting with National Police detectives in Jakarta on Friday to discuss common strategies in combating intellectual property rights piracy
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Joint forces: Art activists pose after meeting with National Police detectives in Jakarta on Friday to discuss common strategies in combating intellectual property rights piracy. On hand were (left to right) Creative Economy Agency head Triawan Munaf, Film Producers Association chairwoman Sheila Timothy, National Policeâs special economic crimes director Brig. Gen. Bambang Waskito, veteran singer Elfonda âOnceâ Mekel and actress Marcella Zalianty. (JP/DON) (left to right) Creative Economy Agency head Triawan Munaf, Film Producers Association chairwoman Sheila Timothy, National Policeâs special economic crimes director Brig. Gen. Bambang Waskito, veteran singer Elfonda âOnceâ Mekel and actress Marcella Zalianty. (JP/DON)
Joint forces: Art activists pose after meeting with National Police detectives in Jakarta on Friday to discuss common strategies in combating intellectual property rights piracy. On hand were (left to right) Creative Economy Agency head Triawan Munaf, Film Producers Association chairwoman Sheila Timothy, National Police's special economic crimes director Brig. Gen. Bambang Waskito, veteran singer Elfonda 'Once' Mekel and actress Marcella Zalianty. (JP/DON)
The anti-piracy task force of the Creative Economy Agency has sealed a deal with the National Police's detective division to work together to root out copyright theft.
The task force comprises a combination of officials from within the agency and several film and music associations, including the Film Producer Association (APROFI), Indonesia's Sound Recording Industry Association (ASIRI) and Association of Indonesian Singers, Songwriters and Music Arrangers (PAPPRI).
'As a start, this task force will only deal with music and film as those industries are the most affected by piracy,' agency head Triawan Munaf said during a meeting with the division on Friday at the National Police headquarters.
The task force, led by Ari Juliano Gema, will assist with every report filed with the police, monitor the follow-up and conduct education on anti-piracy to improve public appreciation of original work.
Chief detective Comr. Gen. Anang Iskandar said they appreciated the establishment of the task force as it could accelerate the construction of cases before being brought to court.
'By working with those who really understand the issue, we can together tackle this issue much faster,' he said.
During the meeting, APROFI chairwoman and film producer Sheila Timothy said piracy had caused the country's film industry severe losses, which had subsequently led to a decrease in profits and quality of films.
She said the impact of piracy could be seen from the death of the home video ' DVD and VCD ' industry in Indonesia.
'Home video business owners don't want to buy Indonesian films anymore because it's too risky for them as the pirated versions of the films have already been widely sold,' she said.
She said that in 2009, they could give a production house an advance payment on one film of around
Rp 200 million (US$14,000), but by 2012, this had dropped to Rp 70 million and the figure kept dropping to only Rp 1 million in 2015.
As film producers had started to look to the digital market to distribute their films, she was concerned the local film industry could not prosper in the relatively new platform as they would face huge threats from online piracy.
'Dealing with online piracy is the hardest one I think, because it's very hard to trace the owners of the websites,' she said.
In August, the Communications and Information Ministry blocked 25 websites that provided free movie-download services. Six of the sites are now back online, according to Sheila, and APROFI has reported them to the police.
'All those problems lead to a decline in film quality because producers find it hard to get their money back to make another good film, as films usually require huge capital ' anywhere from Rp 2 billion to Rp 20 billion,' said Sheila, the producer of Tabula Rasa.
The association also estimates the potential loss from one pirated movie through various channels could amount to around Rp 4.3 billion.
'We need some kind of shock therapy, a strong punishment to deal with copyright piracy.'
From the music industry, general manager of ASIRI Ventha Lesmana also voiced the same concerns, saying that music piracy, both in physical and digital forms, had crippled the local music scene.
'The year 1966 is our golden period as we sold 77 million copies of physical albums in one year. In 2014, we only sold 9 million copies of CDs and cassettes,' Ventha said.
'According to our data, there are around 18 million copies of pirated films, music and software circulating in the market each month.'
Pirated CDs, DVDs, games and software can be easily found in many shopping malls despite the 'Don't Buy Pirated Indonesian Movies and Music' signs posted on their booths, on the streets of the Glodok area in West Jakarta and on many crossing bridges across the capital.
Although law enforcers frequently raid the duplication factories and stores they quickly reopen and get back to business as usual because the market is so huge.
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