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In an apparent effort to bolster the government’s flagging anti-piracy credentials, officials on Thursday raided stores selling bootleg video discs at a South Jakarta mall.

The raid at Plaza Semanggi involved the Jakarta Police, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights (HAKI) and officials from the Indonesian Video Association (AVI).

Faturrahman, director of investigations at the HAKI, said authorities had been tipped off by members of the public about the open sale of the pirated VCDs and DVDs.

Authorities seized around 40,000 pirated discs from several stores in the mall, he said.

“We didn’t confiscate any original discs, but most of the discs they were selling were clearly pirated anyway.”

No arrests were made, but Faturrahman said the store owners would be investigated “so we can find those distributing the bootlegged discs.”

He added that movie piracy was particularly prevalent in Indonesia, which he said had been named the third-biggest producer of bootlegged movies after China and Russia.

The raid comes less than two weeks after the Office of the United States Trade Representative released its Special 301 Report for 2011, which highlights efforts and shortcomings by its trade partners to tackle piracy.

For the third year running, Indonesia was named in the report’s Priority Watch List for lax enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The report said “enforcement efforts were insufficient to keep pace with Indonesia’s piracy and counterfeiting problem, including with respect to the widespread availability of counterfeit pharmaceutical products and other counterfeit hard goods.”

It also raised concerns about the “troubling change to its customs valuation methodology for imported motion pictures” that has effectively barred Hollywood blockbusters from Indonesian cinemas.

It estimates the American music and film industries lose more than $205 million annually as a result of copyright infringement in Indonesia.

Before the release of the USTR’s report, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged the piracy problem by calling on Indonesians to respect the protection of intellectual rights and to promote innovation that could contribute to economic growth.

“I call on all Indonesian people to acknowledge, give incentives and protect intellectual property rights in our country,” he said on April 26 at an event to mark World Intellectual Property Day.

However, there are fears that the long-ingrained culture of movie piracy will only grow more entrenched as the de facto Hollywood blockade drags on well into the summer blockbuster season.For some viewers, the ongoing disagreement between the customs office and movie importers about the amount of tax imposed has left them with little choice but to turn to pirated DVDs.

Herda Aprillia, a member of the Indo Harry Potter online fan community, said on Wednesday that he was worried about not being able to watch “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2,” the final installment in the hugely popular series that is due for release in July.

“I’m actually staunchly against pirated films,” he said.

“But what else can you do? I’m not going to wait until the DVD is [officially] released or fly to Singapore just to watch the film.”

The government had promised a resolution by the end of March to the disagreement that began on Feb. 17, but talks apparently have not concluded as major releases like “Thor” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” are still not being shown in cinemas here.