Indonesia to ratify Bern Convention on copyright

JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon ratify the 1886 Bern Convention on copyrights protection, the vice cabinet secretary of the State Secretariat Bambang Kesowo said yesterday.

The ratification is scheduled to take place this week, Bambang said at the opening of a three-day discussion on copyrights in Asia.

"We have sent the proposal to ratify the convention to the President, and it has been discussed with the Ministry of Justice, the attorney general and the National Police," he said.

Although Indonesia's piracy record has frequently come under the spotlight, Bambang said, "We are new in the field... but we are willing to learn."

Figures from the International Federation of Phonograph Industries showed that from Indonesia's monthly sales of up to seven million tapes and CDs, 20 percent were foreign music. Nine percent of these were pirated.

Bambang said the ratification of the convention, one of five conventions on copyrights, was a step further to upholding copyright protection.

"We expect more respect for our copyrights, and conversely we will be expected to do the same," he said.

The roundtable on the protection and collective management of copyright and neighboring rights for Asian countries is being organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in cooperation with the Indonesian Presidential Commission on Intellectual Property Rights and the Karya Cipta Indonesia Foundation (YKCI).

On March 21 the House of Representatives revised the copyright, trademark and patent laws to conform with the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights of the World Trade Organization.

Carlos Fernandez Ballesteros, the assistant director general for WIPO, said the step would "hopefully set an example for other countries in Asia".

Ballesteros hailed Indonesia's decision to become the 126th member of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

He said on May 8 Indonesia would deposit to the WIPO director the general instruments of accession to the Berne Convention and to six other WIPO conventions on the protection of intellectual property.

He said people had realized the need for effective protection of literary and artistic works.

"Never before (has) the century-old Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, been so popular and important as it is today."

He said the 16 countries participating in the roundtable would also discuss neighboring rights, which protect the rights of creators, performers and broadcasters.

Apart from YKCI general manager Candra Darusman, other speakers at the meeting include Ang Kwee Tiang, regional director of the Singapore-based regional office for Asia-Pacific under the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.

Japanese Seji Odaki, chief of the international relations department of the Tokyo-based Society for Authors, Composers and Publishers, is due to speak today. (anr)