IPR piracy losing game for the future

By Sugianto Tandra

JAKARTA (JP): Few people are aware of the obscure loophole in the country's current intellectual property law which allows copying of books without approval from the legal copyright holder.

Deputy Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo, who is also a member of the advisory board of the Indonesian Intellectual Property Society (IIPS), said recently the allowance was found in the nonvoluntary licensing policy of the Intellectual Property Rights Law.

"It means that if the government deems a piece of intellectual property important to the country's education, science, and technology sectors, the government will help pay for the royalty on the copyright," Bambang told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

"Normally, we would go to a holder of an intellectual property copyright and negotiate to get the license to copy. Yet, in the nonvoluntary license, you just need to pay the royalty," he said.

No publisher or institution has used the loophole despite the rife intellectual property piracy in Indonesia. Bambang discussed widespread violations of intellectual property rights and the necessity for the government to take a strong stance in a recent interview. The following are excerpts.

Question: How do you view the widespread product piracy here?

Answer: From a wider perspective on the policy, there are two aspects that we should be aware of concerning the government's effort to build an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system.

First is our effort to establish a better atmosphere that will be able to encourage creations useful for the nation's development. These creations will be useful to the nation economically, socially and culturally.

Second is that we can only bring about more and better creations if we can deliver better human resources.

Q: Meaning?

A: The point is we have to provide an even better atmosphere so that people have more freedom to deliver their creations, so that they will deliver more, and of a better quality. This means that, directly or indirectly, it is an effort to develop the quality of our human resources.

I would like to use this occasion to remind us all of how we've often ignored a fundamental part (of this issue), long our commitment as a nation since we proclaimed our independence. This is our development aim for the establishment of accomplished, mature and developed Indonesian people. It's stated in many of our state political documents, and is the heart of our development.

Our development target is for the human being... but it is often the case now is that we still sometimes hold on to the commitment. On the other hand, our viewpoints often fall into the trap of pragmatism, creating the impression that we are in the course of not building the human being, but rather its accessories.

We mostly see progress in the material world as important.

That's why I have said right from the beginning that one of the targets of the establishment of the country's IPR system is also for the development of the quality of our human resources.

Now, we come to the need of defining the concrete means for reaching the target; to put it another way, we have to define the ways to make what constitutes the essence of our development come true.

It is through establishing the IPR system that I aspire to help the nation reach its development essence, though this is, of course, not the only way.

Q: Why the IPR system?

A: The current concept of property is unlike that in the past. In the past, what constituted property is that it exists, that it was here for all of us to use because it's God's gift.

Apart from how grand this concept is, it makes people static and passive, whereas human beings are endowed with a mind, reason and feeling. They have to be encouraged to bring about new creations through use of God's endowments.

This is where we come to the concept of the IPR. Only good human resources can come up with quality creations, and only a good and conducive atmosphere can make them deliver their intellectual creations. In this case they have to be sure that they can create peacefully, that their creations will be respected and recognized, and that their property rights will not be violated.

This is the bigger perspective in which we need to see our IPR system.

Q: Returning to my opening question...

A: The government views the phenomenon with great concern. On the one side, we strive to establish the atmosphere (conducive to intellectual creations), while on the other we also witness those (IP piracy) practices going on.

Q: What is the government's stance then?

A: The government cannot tolerate it, of course. Let's say there is a proposition which justifies the IP piracy practices, saying the piracy of books, be they local or imported works, makes books cheap, subsequently boding well for the progress of science and knowledge here. Following this, it would make people much smarter.

My question to such a proposition would be: Is it true that it is only through reading that we can provide a person with intelligence?

Let me put it this way. If we want to give our children education and welfare, do not instill talents and skills through means that are against the norms and rules. It will be dangerous. It's like training our children to be thieves.

Yes, we could train them to become an excellent thief, like the Saint. It would still be good that you are successful in training your child to be a Saint, otherwise the Cipinang prison would be overloaded with thieves (he laughs).

From the viewpoint of the children, no matter how well we train our kids, they themselves will be living their lives against the norms.

From the viewpoint of the parents, they could be as corrupt as they want to please their children, their people, but I am sure their children will not enjoy that for long.

I have simplified the analogy too much, but above all, I think there are ways to give intelligence and prosperity to our nation instead of through means that are against norms and rules.

Q: Are there any legal loopholes?

A: Yes. The law here gives us loopholes for that. Look into our IPR law carefully. There is a clause which enables us to pay only a certain royalty amount to the international right holder.