Despite the existence of websites that stream practically all of the porn videos that have ever existed ever, there are still certain places in Jakarta where those who don’t have internet bandwidth to waste, or don’t know how to circumvent the government’s morality firewall, still obtain porn in physical formats.
One format that has grown large in the local porn blackmarket is the external hard disk, which can contain gigabytes of porn and which can, apparently, be sold for large profits.
Yesterday, police arrested a porn external HD seller in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, during a sting operation. According to the police, the suspect, identified as 32-year-old IR, copied porn he downloaded online onto external HDs and sold them to buyers he met online.
“The profit that the suspect gained for each transaction is Rp 400,000 (US$ 30). On average, each month he earned Rp 5 million to Rp 8 million in profits,” said Tanjung Priok Police Chief Robertus Yohanes De Deo, as quoted by Poskotanews today.
During the sting operation, one police officer from the precinct’s Cyber Crimes unit posed as one of IR’s buyer. The pair met to carry out the transaction at a bus stop, after which IR was arrested without any resistance.
According to the police, IR has been in the business for the past three years. He is still under police investigation, but it’s likely that he will be charged with violating Indonesia’s anti-pornography law, which forbids the spread of pornography in any medium and is punishable by up to six years in prison.
