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ajor Internet service providers such as Bolt, Indosat, Telkomsel and XL are expected to comply with a government instruction to block 22 illegal websites that provide free foreign and local movie downloads.

'€œThe ministry has instructed about 200 providers listed with it to block the sites. However, we aren'€™t checking the execution because it is stated in the initial agreement that providers will follow instructions from the ministry. So if you find any of these providers still loading the content, you can inform us,'€ Communications and Information Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The decision to block the sites was in response to a report from the Association of Indonesian Film Producers (APROFI) on Aug. 15 that content on the websites violated intellectual rights.

The websites in questions are ganool.com, nontonmovie.com, bioskops.com, ganool.ca, kickass.to, thepiratebay.se, downloadfilmbaru.com, ganool.co.id, 21filmcinema.com, gudangfilm.faa.im, movie76.com, isohunt.to, cinemaindo.net, ganool.in, bioskop21.net, unduhfilm21.net, bioskopkita.com, downloadfilm.com, comotin.net, movie2k.ti, unduhmovie.com and 21sinema.com.

The APROFI said the sites had dealt a blow to the local film industry because they provided streaming and download video services without copyright agreements with the owners of the materials.

'€œSuch a practice has reduced the industry'€™s income from the secondary market, such as the DVD market,'€ APROFI secretary-general Fauzan Zidni said Saturday.

In 2006, a film producer could sell the rights to a DVD or VCD production company for about Rp 200 million (US$14,492) per movie. In 2013, the price went down to Rp 50 million. '€œNow it is almost zero,'€ he said.

Rampant illegal downloading had also made companies reluctant to release their movies on DVD or VCD, inflicting losses not only on film producers but also on consumers as once the movie was out of the cinema, they could not view them.

'€œThere are also no investors in Indonesia who want to start an online movie business like Netflix, from which people can buy movies online,'€ Fauzan told the Post.

He cited research by Oxford Economics that showed how the industry contributed to state income. Based on official and other data, the research showed that the television and film industry directly contributed Rp 7,675 billion to the Indonesian economy in state gross domestic product in 2010. The industry also supported 191,800 jobs and generated Rp 785 billion in tax revenue.

Many have said that websites offering free and illegal downloads would continue to pop up.

The cost of setting up and registering websites is low and the easy availability of tools and applications have helped piracy to thrive.

'€œThe most effective way is indeed to shut down websites, but it has its own challenges, especially in legal affairs. Most of the 22 sites have foreign domains so to close them down, our government may need to deal with lengthy procedures involving entities and governments abroad,'€ said Heru Sutadi, an IT expert from the Indonesia Information and Communication Technology Institute.

Ismail said that to be able to shut down a website, an entity had to file a lawsuit with an Indonesian court because the process involved legal materials and the ministry did not have the sole authority to decide.

Fauzan said that for now the association had no plans to sue the website owners. '€œThis is the first effort taken after the Communications and Information Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry made a joint regulation in June.'€ (rbk)