Producers launch campaign against movie piracy

[Len]

If you spend a lot of time online, you may be familiar with websites offering newly premiered movies available for download or streaming, often recorded inside the theater.

Now, though, a new breed of movie streamers has popped up; the live-streamer looking for clout online by streaming the latest flick, spoilers be damned.

Addressing this issue, the Indonesian Film Producers’ Association (APROFI) has launched a new campaign against movie piracy specifically targeting this new phenomenon.

The campaign, done in collaboration with the Motion Pictures Association and the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), will be shown at three major cinema franchises — Cinema XXI, CGV and Cinemaxx.

This year, the campaign is using the intellectual property of Lifelike Pictures’ Wiro Sableng, which will hit theaters on Aug. 30.

The campaign is directed by Teguh Raharjo and sees Wiro Sableng’s stars Vino G Bastian and Fauzan Alfarizi reprising their roles as Wiro and Bujang Gila Tapak Sakti, respectively. Actress Jessica Veranda is also in the campaign, while Marsha Timothy provided the voiceovers.

APROFI chairman Fauzan Zidni said the program was part of their yearly program using its members’ intellectual property.

“Last year, we used Filosofi Kopi and this year we used Wiro Sableng as it is the only movie that is part of both the Motion Pictures Association and APROFI,” Fauzan said.

Lifelike Pictures producer Sheila Timothy, who was also APROFI’s chairperson from 2013-2016, said the campaign was meant to instill in moviegoers that piracy was considered stealing.

“We want to encourage people, especially the younger generation, to be aware of what is right and wrong. We don’t want to scare people, so we’ve used a more comedic approach,” Sheila said, adding that the use of Wiro in the campaign was perfect because his character also fought for what was right.

Research by the University of Indonesia’s Institute for Economic and Social Research (LPEM- UI) found that the Indonesian film industry experienced an annual loss of Rp 1.495 trillion (US$103.5 million) due to illegal downloads and pirated DVDs.

Since 2015, APROFI and the Motion Pictures Association have reported 510 websites, suspected of copyright infringements, to the Law and Human Rights Ministry, which were then blocked by the Communication and Information Ministry.

In the Asia Pacific region, Indonesia sits at number two for the number of copyright-infringing websites blocked by the government, behind South Korea.

Cinema XXI corporate secretary Catherine Keng said there were two types of people who recorded movies in theaters — those who live-streamed for social media and those who planned to profit from the recordings.

“The first category is those who simply want to gain traction on social media. They live-stream movies because they consider it cool,” said Catherine, adding such behavior was commonly found among the younger generation and those who lacked awareness of the cinema’s rules.

She added that those belonging to the second category usually attended premieres, where they would record the video and audio separately, not necessarily in the same theater, and spliced them together later.

All three cinema brands have employed their own measures to fight pirates, for example, by using an advanced monitoring system that works in the dark as well as periodic checks from cinema staff.

CGV head of brand marketing Wisnu Triatmojo said when cinema staff caught someone in the act, they would ask the individual to delete the videos.

“We don’t want to act too hastily, but if we catch them we will hand them over to the authorities,” he added.

Catherine said in the case of underage children, Cinema XXI staff would notify their parents that they have committed a felony.

“In the case of an Indonesian film, we will alert the film’s producers and submit a full report of the incident. However, the people who can pursue the cases legally are the producers, and we as the exhibitors will act as witnesses.”

Catherine provided a notable example of a case involving the Warkop DKI Reborn movie. A moviegoer live-streamed the movie on an app, and filmmaker Falcon Pictures reported the individual to the police.

“There is a law that stipulates the fines and sentences, and it’s up to the filmmakers if they want to take legal action.”