Buying Pirated DVDs in Jakarta

Many shops in Jakarta sell pirated DVDs, CD's and games. In those shops, you can find the newest cinema movies, older Hollywood movies, Asian movies (mainly from Hongkong and Korea), Bollywood movies (India) and TV series like Sex and the City, Heroes and NCIS. Many of the shops also sell music CD's (mp3 collections), PC games and games for game consoles, like PlayStation, and some of the shops even sell porn movies (usually hidden).

Pirated DVDs in Jakarta

You can find shops with pirated DVDs, CD's and games in malls, such as ITC Ambassador, ITC Permata Hijau, ITC Fatmawati, Mangga Dua, other ITC-malls, Pasar Festival (Kuningan), Ratu Plaza and Artha Gading. There are also pirated DVD shops outside malls, mostly in residential areas.

The price is of a DVD is normally between 5.000 rupiah and 10.000 rupiah (equal to 0.55 to 1.10 USD or 0.42 to 0.83 Euros) and the shops often offer a deal like 'buy 5 get 1 for free'.

When you want to buy pirated DVDs, be aware of the fact that some of the shops sell non-original DVDs (recorded in cinema, copied from a demo DVD with breaks every few minutes, etc.) and some DVD don't have original English subtitles. Some shops provide a TV and DVD player to check the quality and subtitles before you buy the DVD, but not all of them. You can just ask the shop keeper whether the DVD is original or not and hopefully he or she will give you a fair answer.

Since the pirated DVD shops are not 'hidden' at all, you might wonder whether it's illegal to sell (and buy) those DVDs or not. Well, it IS illegal, but kind of 'tolerated'. Sometimes the police raids DVD shops, but normally the shop owner will just temporarily close his/her shop or pay a fine. Until now, there is no strict policy against selling pirated DVDs in Jakarta.

However, as I already mentioned, it's officially illegal to buy (and own) pirated DVDs. It is of course up to you if you buy it or not, but I would strongly recommend not to bring your pirated DVD collection abroad if you to prevent trouble with customs (most other countries are not very tolerant when it's about pirated DVDs).

Pirated DVDs in Jakarta

Pirated PlayStation 2 Games in Jakarta

TV and DVD player to test quality of DVDs / subtitles

Pirated Music CD's in Jakarta