Gang up on Piracy

Angga Dwimas Sasongko received rather disturbing news at the end of last year. The organizers of the CinemAsia Film Festival 2015 in Amsterdam had disqualified his film, Cahaya dari Timur: Beta Maluku (Lights from the East: I Am Maluku). "Because [the film] had already been pirated and could be viewed on the Internet," said the Indonesian Film Producers Association board member last Monday.

At the time, he knew the festival committee was not just bluffing. Angga understood that almost all international festival organizers tightly screened films seeking to participate. These festival organizers would immediately reject films already illegally shown on the Internet. Before Angga heard the news that his film had been disqualified, he was already aware that The Raid by director Gareth Evans, for instance, had not been shown in several countries because the film had already been uploaded to free download sites. "This is an example of how cyberspace piracy is impacting the film industry," Angga said.