Govt not ready to enforce copyright law
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The enactment of Law No. 19/2002 on the protection of copyrights on Tuesday did not seem to bother vendors, who continued to sell pirated materials.
In Blok M shopping area in South Jakarta and in Menteng, Central Jakarta, vendors displayed dozens of pirated VCDs, despite the announcement that the law would take effect by Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
In the Central Java capital of Semarang and the Lampung capital of Bandarlampung it was business as usual as vendors sold pirated VCDs in several markets there, Antara reported on Tuesday.
But Abdul Bari Azed, the director general for intellectual property rights at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, admitted the enforcement of the law remained unclear as the ministry had not completed the government's regulations.
"We are finishing the regulations soon," he said at a media gathering to mark the nationwide intellectual property rights campaign: "Stop Piracy, Save the Creativity of the Nation's Children," which aims to promote the enforcement of the law on copyrights.
The House of Representatives endorsed the law last year but the legislation was delayed as the public needed time to prepare.
Bari said he could not go into details regarding the law enforcement as the team assigned to monitor the implementation of the copyrights law is not ready. The law orders the formation of the team.
The team, consisting of officers from the ministry, the police, prosecutors, judges and customs officials, will be tasked with drawing up policies on intellectual property rights violations.
Pending the formation of the team, Bari said his ministry would deploy some 150 civilians to investigate counterfeiters. Offenders will be handed over to the police and formally charged.
When asked whether the government would continue efforts to curb piracy, Bari replied: "The government has committed to do so."
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said, at the launch of the campaign, that the public needed to respect copyrights in order to eradicate piracy.
"Public participation is mandatory in eradicating piracy. We can't work alone," he said.
Bari said investigators would focus on the trade of pirated materials in shopping centers.
He said 60 malls across Greater Jakarta had been warned not to allow vendors to sell pirated materials and 10,000 computer users not to use pirated software.
Copyrights violators could face jail terms of between one month and seven years and fines of up to Rp 5 billion (US$ 584,000).
Separately, Jakarta Police claimed they lacked the funds to conduct special operations to curb piracy.
"To date, we have no money to finance such operations," Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said.
He added the police also had no time to crack down on piracy. But to prove that police are concerned about the crime, he said that they conducted regular raids.
Indonesia ranks third after China and Vietnam in cases of piracy, and remains on the United States' watch list.
A report by the Business Software Alliance revealed software developers suffered US$80 million in losses in 2001 because of pirated software in Indonesia.
The law is a consequence of Indonesia's acceptance of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspect Of Intellectual Property Right under the World Trade Organization (WTO).