Indecent activity

Indecent activity

From Kompas

I was impressed by a recent episode of Harry de Fretes' Hari- Hari Mau comedy show titled Wawancara dengan Ajakin (Interview with the Association of Indonesian Pirates) on the ANteve television channel. It was a good satire which could embarrass the pirates.

As a painter, I have bad experiences with pirates. Maybe I would not mind if other artists copied my works. But I have been really upset by the making of posters of my paintings without my consent. I have not received any royalties on the sale of these posters, which have been produced for years. In some of the posters, the pirates have removed my signature and substituted their own names.

The pirates even dared to make posters of my painting of eight horses titled Kharisma Sang Pemimpin (Charisma of the Leader), which is in the collection of the Purna Bhakti Pertiwi Museum at the Indonesia-in-Miniature Park in Jakarta. I myself would not dare to make posters of the painting.

This is only one example of the widespread practice of piracy in our country, which seems to be beyond the reach of law enforcement authorities. Even Bob Geldof and Pierre Cardin have been unable to beat the Indonesian pirates.

I hope that Harry de Fretes brings to the stage other topics related to crime and unlawful activities in the form of comedy.

I hope the violators will feel embarrassed and stop their piracy, an indecent activity which obviously inflicts losses on other people.

ADAM (LAY) PURNAWAN

Cipanas, West Java