Government has finalized regulation on optical discs

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has finalized a draft governmental regulation to give more protection to intellectual property rights (IPR) for software, film and music.

The draft was finalized in September 2003 and had been sent to the office of the Secretary of State for presidential approval, Ansori Sinangun, the deputy director of the Directorate of Copyright, Industrial Designs, Integrated Circuit (IC) Layout Designs and Trade Secrets of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said on Thursday.

Quoting data from Business Software Alliance, Ansori said that in 2003, Indonesia had the third highest incidence of piracy with a piracy rate of 89 percent, after Vietnam with 95 percent and China with 92 percent.

Optical discs containing pirated software, films, music and games are widely available in the country.

"Other Southeast Asian countries already have a similar regulation on optical discs and they now are able to curb piracy in the their country much better," said Ansori in a discussion organized by South Korea-based LG Electronics Indonesia.

He said the regulation would implement the Intellectual Property Right Law No. 19/2002 which came into effect in June last year.

Under the planned regulation, aside from vendors and distributors, manufacturers of pirated discs also risk being imprisoned or having their business licenses revoked.

"Under the regulation, we could go to the manufacturer, check their licenses and orders. If the production does not match with orders, there must be something wrong and we can take action," said Ansori.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce of the United States Department of Commerce, William H. Lash III, criticized Indonesia on Wednesday for its poor performance in combating copyright piracy, saying American firms lost up to a quarter of a billion U.S. dollars a year due to the unauthorized production of software, DVDs and films in Indonesia.

He said Indonesia is now on the U.S. "priority watch list" given the high piracy rate in the country.

"Being on their priority watch list, Indonesia risks facing punitive measures from the U.S., such as export bans, an embargo and other penalties," said Ansori.

On the other hand, piracy is rampant here as the original products are considered too expensive for most of the people, he said.

"Weak law enforcement and the lack of awareness among consumers are the main obstacles in fighting piracy."

Ansori said that cheaper electronic goods, including those imported from China, had also contributed to the rise in piracy here.

"More people now can afford to buy DVD or VCD players. Since the original DVDs and VCDs are still expensive, they would predictably buy pirated ones," he said.

LG Electronic Indonesia marketing and sales manager Sung Khiun said that last year a DVD player sold for around Rp 1.5 million (US$176). Now, a good DVD play is available for only Rp 600,000 to Rp 750,000.

The firm's president Young Ha Kim said electronics manufacturers could help fight piracy by equipping their DVD players with a region coding system. However, installing such a feature would increase production costs.

"The best way would be for software companies and title makers to produce at more competitive prices," he said.