'Indonesia still ambiguous about combating piracy'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An official said on Thursday that this country
\nwas still ambiguous about combating piracy of intellectual
\nproperty rights, arguing that many small enterprises earned their
\nprofits from pirated products.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' Director General for
\nIntellectual Property Rights A. Zen Umar Purba warned that such a
\nperception hampered the effort to protect intellectual property
\nrights.<\/p>\n
"Don't use vendors or small businesses as an excuse for not
\nfighting piracy. The ventures may be small now, but they can
\nbecome big," he told a media conference here marking Intellectual
\nProperty Rights Day on April 26.<\/p>\n
Purba also pointed to the punishments for copyright violations
\nwhich he said were unsatisfactory and contributed to rampant
\npiracy.<\/p>\n
He referred to the 1987 Law on Copyright which carries a
\nmaximum penalty of seven years imprisonment and\/or a Rp 100
\nmillion (US$10,000) fine for copyright violations.<\/p>\n
Many observers say that the punishment is too light because
\nprofessional counterfeiters can pass bribes worth hundreds of
\nmillions of rupiah to law enforcers so as to avoid legal action.<\/p>\n
Purba acknowledged that piracy was rampant in this country,
\nwith pirated VCDs easy to find on the streets.<\/p>\n
He revealed data compiled by the International Intellectual
\nProperty Alliance (IIPA) which estimated that revenue losses from
\ncopyright piracy in Indonesia reached US$186 million in 1999.<\/p>\n
"But our incidence of piracy is not the worst in the world,"
\nPurba said.<\/p>\n
China, he added, topped the revenue-loss league with $1
\nbillion. Even Malaysia ranked higher than Indonesia with $260
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
However, Purba said, there were many things that we should be
\nconcerned about regarding this country's natural resources and
\nlocally developed technologies.<\/p>\n
Scientists have called for a law on this as there have already
\nbeen several cases in which organisms taken from Indonesia free
\nof charge were registered by foreign companies.<\/p>\n
"Honestly, we have yet to scratch the surface of this issue,"
\nPurba said.<\/p>\n
Kartono Subagyo from the Ministry of Agriculture said that
\nformulating such a law needed a thorough knowledge about access
\nto natural resources.<\/p>\n
"There hasn't been any concept of profit-sharing with
\nvillages, for example. I think we have to do our homework on this
\ntogether," he said.<\/p>\n
According to Purba, a bill amending the law on copyright,
\npatents and trademarks is now in its final stage in the House of
\nRepresentatives.<\/p>\n
"We actually specified the rights (that could be registered)
\nin 1997, but there have been some revisions made as there were a
\nnumber of points that weren't fully resolved," he said without
\nelaborating.<\/p>\n
Earlier in December, the House passed three bills respectively
\non industrial design, integrated circuit space design and trade
\nconfidentiality.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a specialist in the State Ministry for Research and
\nTechnology, Sulaeman Kamil, said that Purba's directorate general
\nshould be given a bigger budget to finance its programs
\npublicizing such rights.<\/p>\n
"The directorate general lacks a sufficient budget right now
\nbecause all of their revenues from trademark registration have to
\nbe paid over to the government as Non-Tax State Revenue," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The directorate general received some Rp 25 billion last year.<\/p>\n
"Meanwhile, in Korea or Japan 90 percent of the revenue goes
\nto the directorate itself," Sulaeman added.<\/p>\n
According to Sulaeman, the directorate general and State
\nMinistry for Research and Technology will cooperate to publicize
\nregistrable rights and thereby increase revenues.<\/p>\n
"There are some strategic steps that we're developing,
\nincluding an incentive system for inventors and also including
\nthese rights as part of subjects at university," he said. (hdn)<\/p>",
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