Copyright laws should cater to cultures' needs

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.