Copyright laws should cater to cultures' needs

Indonesia has often been criticized for rampant intellectual property rights violations. A seminar titled Copyright Protection in the Field of Art was held earlier last week in conjunction with the 27th anniversary of the Jakarta Arts Institute. The seminar featured speakers from various disciplines. The Jakarta Post's contributor Amir Sidharta writes the following article.

JAKARTA (JP): The price of cassettes in Indonesia has increased more than 10 fold in less than 20 years. An indication of the country's high inflation?

Not really. The price has rocketed in line with improvements to copyright laws here.

The first laws on copyright were introduced in the Dutch period, with the Auterswet of 1912, where copyright became an exclusive right, acknowledged when the materialization of a creation is completed.

In 1958, Indonesia rejected the Bern Convention, relieving the country from duties to comply with international copyright laws. In the 1970s and early 1980s, obvious breaches of copyright laws in Indonesia, especially in the recording industry, were ignored by the government. At that time, mediocre quality music cassettes of popular international bands retailed for US$4 in Europe and the United States. With that money, one could get four high quality recordings of the same albums in Indonesia. The cassettes often even included a selection of the bands' best songs from earlier albums.

In the early 1980s, the Band Aid/Live Aid charity album was compiled by various top musicians for the highly commendable purpose of relieving the victims of famine in Ethiopia. Bob Geldof, the leading figure behind the Band Aid/Live Aid campaign, apparently made sure that the proceeds from the album's sales went to the charity. It seems that his investigations revealed that Indonesia had not signed the Geneva convention. He probed into the case, and lobbied the government to adopt stricter copyright laws.

Indonesia drafted its Copyright Act in 1982 and revised it in 1987.

Head of the Legislative Research Division at the Cabinet Secretariat, Henry Soelistyo Budi, said intensive developments in copyright protection only started after the mid-1980s.

In an effort to combat the massive piracy of copyright works, especially on music cassettes as U.S. President Ronald Reagan noted during his visit to Indonesia in 1986, the Indonesian government formed a team called Tim Keppres 34 with two main tasks, first to finalize the problems in the field of copyright, and secondly, to expedite the drafting of patent laws. Priority was given to improving the 1982 Copyright Act, followed by increasing public awareness in the field, including the coordination in its enforcement, he said. After 1986, the price of cassettes increased to Rp 5,000, Rp 6,000 from Rp 3,000, Rp 2,500 or even Rp 1,000. Today, a cassette costs about Rp 10,000.

Opposition

Henry said the task met with considerable opposition. The public, particularly academics, saw that the development of copyright laws and intellectual property rights, would generally legitimize a monopolistic culture, which went against the principles of gotong royong (mutual cooperation) which is still ingrained in public culture today.

Professor Toeti Heraty, former rector of the Jakarta Arts Institute, linked copyright (hak cipta) with its counterpart, creativity (daya cipta). She further explained that the creative process, which is composed of various abstract concepts and ideas, produces artworks, which are physical and concrete. This process provides the creator with a moral right. Once the artworks or art objects are offered to an appreciative public, then the creator could be entitled to economic rights. Copyrights encompass the moral and economic rights of the creator. The notion that "nothing is new under the sun" makes copyright laws more and more important.

Many artists, particularly recording musicians, have benefited greatly from Indonesian copyright laws. Songwriter Rinto Harahap, who is famous for his corny love songs, for example, has become a wealthy millionaire from the sale of his music.

However, most artists who have not reaped great benefits from copyright regulations -- like sculptor Sumarjono and photographer Dodo Karundeng -- believe that creating art is still more a matter of dedication rather than something that is motivated by potential economic return. Although Dodo Karundeng clearly realizes the significance of copyright in his field, he does not think that the issue of copyright and the economic returns he gets is the main force behind his creativity.

The stress on the importance of copyright laws certainly can be seen as an effort to transform communal creators in agricultural traditions into consumers in industrial cultures. That copyright laws do motivate creativity seems to be an acceptable notion, but whether the laws also maintain qualitative creativity or merely quantitative creativity, still needs to be studied. Has copyright protection motivated songwriter Rinto Harahap to produce better songs, or are they still lost in mediocrity?

Although at this time most artists do not care about copyright laws, most agree that they need to become more aware of the matter. Yet, conventional copyright laws which are valid today need to also consider the needs of traditional communities.

The emphasis on conventional copyright conventions is on the end product, and not on the process. The Berne convention clearly states that ".... works shall not be protected unless they have been fixed in some material form."

Henry believes that "everything under the sun is copyrightable", as he responded to the notion that "nothing is new under the sun." Yet, whether or not copyright can ever be applied to immaterial concepts and creative processes remains to be seen. For now such considerations are extremely unlikely. However, even material forms can be interpreted many ways.

Bali

In a country where artistic creation has traditionally been a communal effort which is often anonymous, the adoption of copyright laws needs to be addressed with special attention. Balinese art, for example, was for a long time considered anonymous, as it was done as a communal effort. Balinese artists, reinterpreted certain subject matters again and again, striving to achieve perfection. The concept of creativity in many traditional cultures in Indonesia is cyclical rather than linear.

Handicraft in Bali developed with this paradigm in mind. Therefore, when Balinese craftspeople make Baris frog statuettes, they really may not consider that they are mass producing artifacts, but rather that each statuette they make is a work of art in itself.

In 1986, an American producer of cat statues known as "Pop Art" tried to sue a Balinese for producing similar statues. At the time the Indonesian Copyright Act did not yet protect works with international copyrights, and therefore it was impossible for the American company to press charges in Indonesia.

The "Pop Art" case can be considered minor when compared to another case which concerns batik designs. Many foreign individuals and companies have taken advantage of Indonesia's lack awareness of copyright laws.

An Indonesian batik specialist said that many batik traders have had difficulties marketing batik with certain patterns in America. Apparently this is because some patterns have been copyrighted by a large handicraft company, whose proprietor is an American writer who had published a book on batik.

Well-known painter Srihadi Soedarsono was surprised to find his sketch of President Sukarno in a publication called Indonesia Welcomes You, published by Ismay Publications, Hong Kong. His signature clearly appears on the bottom of the sketch, but seems to have been partially cropped out of the picture to conceal the identity of the artist. Although the caption mentions the subject matter of the sketch, no effort was made to acknowledge the artist.

Henry said that copyright laws were mainly arranged around the principle of lifetime plus 50 years, meaning that the copyright applies for the lifetime of the creator plus 50 years after the creator's death. Therefore, it is most likely that copyright on traditional batik patterns is already public domain. However, there is a postulation that traditional creations are held by the nation of the creation's origin. Within the country, there is no problem for craftspeople to produce traditional creations, but they cannot be used by companies outside the country, without permission from the country to which the copyright belongs.

Hence, there is a possibility that Indonesia could reclaim the copyrights to the patterns which were claimed by the handicraft company. While in the rest of the world, copyright is provided automatically once a creation is completed, in America copyright must be registered. But the copyright office does not investigate the origin of the creation.

Indonesia has exercised its copyright to traditional creations before, for example when a Singapore company proposed building a Southeast Asian theme park which would feature Borobudur. Henry said Indonesia rejected the idea, to protect the sanctity and authenticity of the monument both as a religious entity as well as a national heritage.

As the field of art continues to develop, an increasing awareness of the importance of copyright laws will follow.

In essence, copyright laws need to be seen as an actual global phenomenon. They should not just benefit industrialized countries which take advantage of developing countries, but should work to the benefit of developing and industrializing countries alike. There are still some aspects of creation in traditional communities in Indonesia which can be taken into account to improve the laws. Once these aspects have been taken into account, we will have a better chance in seeing even more developments in the acceptance of copyright laws in Indonesia.