Govt not ready to enforce copyright law

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).