Harsher penalties needed to protect creative rights
Harsher penalties needed to protect creative rights
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice and Human Rights Baharuddin
Lopa said on Monday that intellectual property rights issues are
only understood by certain groups of people.
Economic advantage, he added, is not necessarily related to an
understanding of the subject, as many people from middle to upper
classes remain unaware of it.
"As if property rights are limited to certain people. They're
actually for everyone," he said when opening a two-day seminar
held to mark International Property Rights Day, which falls on
April 26.
He added that promotion is the key to improving people's
knowledge and awareness of the rights.
"Through this seminar, I hope awareness can be increased. This
seminar will hopefully encourage new inventions," Lopa added.
The ministry's Director General for Intellectual Property
Rights, A. Zen Umar Purba, was more positive about social
awareness, claiming that the public's knowledge of intellectual
property rights had been developed.
Purba explained that there have been 22,000 copyright
registrations since 1993 and some 25,000 patent rights
registrations over the same period.
The government has collected around Rp 22 billion (US$2
million) from the registrations, he added.
"It indicates that intellectual property rights procedures in
Indonesia have been implemented well," Purba asserted.
He added that the system does not only cover copyright,
trademarks and patents, but also industrial design, integrated
circuit space design and trade confidentiality, the bills for
which were passed by the House of Representatives in December.
The House is now working on revision of the 1997 Law on
Copyright, Patents and Trademarks.
Goeswono Soepardi, who is a professor at the School of
Agriculture Technology in Surabaya's Widya Mandala University,
noted that Indonesia produces very few inventions compared to
other countries.
Data compiled by the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) revealed that there were only 75 local patents
registered in 1994.
The number was too small compared to foreign inventions
registered in Indonesia during the same period, which stood at a
staggering 2,307.
"We even lag behind Malaysia, which recorded 223 local
registrations and 3,364 foreign registrations, while their
population is much lower than this country," he said.
Law enforcement
Meanwhile, Purba denied allegations that the government had
been too lenient in upholding the law to protect intellectual
property rights. Instead, he blamed the poor enforcement of
national laws for the rampant property rights violations.
"The legal enforcement of copyright ownership is an
inseparable part of the entire legal system," he said.
Earlier, Purba pointed to the penalties for copyright
violations, which he said were unsatisfactory and contributed to
rampant infringements.
He referred to the 1987 Law on Copyright which carries a
maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment and/or a Rp 100
million (US$10,000) fine for copyright violations.
Many observers say that the punishment is too light because
professional counterfeiters can pass bribes worth hundreds of
millions of rupiah to law enforcers in order to avoid legal
action.
According to Purba, different punishments were a result of
different perceptions of upholding the law.
"There is still confusion about proper punishment against
copyright violations. Many small vendors earn their living from
the sale of pirated (audio, visual or digital) products," he told
the seminar.
As for copyright violations, Purba said that cases of piracy
in the country were not that many compared to China, which
suffers the largest revenue losses from piracy, estimated at $1
billion in 1999.
Malaysia suffered an estimated $260 million in losses, while
Indonesia was estimated to suffer $186 million in losses.
However, Purba said, law enforcement must be improved to
protect inventors and creators, and encourage others to
create.(hdn)