JAKARTA (JP): Despite the fact that piracy is rampant here, any hope of obtaining legal redress will require patience, persistence and plenty of time.
For the third time in a row, the Central Jakarta District Court failed on Thursday to deliver a judgment in a piracy case involving Microsoft Inc. and four local computer traders.
Presiding judge Amiruddin Zakaria opened the hearing at 3:20 p.m., more than four hours late, only to adjourn it for another two weeks.
Amiruddin said the judges had yet to complete the drafting of the judgment as they wanted to make it "as perfect as possible".
"It's the first such case here. We have to be very careful because the judgment will become a precedent for similar cases in the future," he told The Jakarta Post later.
Microsoft sued five local traders, which are all based in the Mangga Dua shopping mall, a haven for cheap, pirated computer software, for allegedly installing pirated Windows 98, Windows 97 and Microsoft Office 2000 software in computers and then selling them to public.
Four of them were sued in the Central Jakarta District Court, while the other one was sued in the West Jakarta District Court.
Microsoft is demanding that each company pay between US$1 million and $5 million in damages and issue a public apology in 10 local newspapers.
On Monday, presiding judge M. Saleh of the West Jakarta District Court also failed for the third time to deliver a judgment.
Lawyers from both sides voiced their disappointment on Thursday as they had wasted hours waiting for the court to convene.
"Why didn't they tell us this before? It's the third time the session has been postponed. This is annoying," Hermawi Taslim, a lawyer for the traders, said.
Microsoft lawyer Ahmad Djosan said he could do nothing as the convening of the court was the prerogative of the judges, not the lawyers.
"It has become an Indonesian legal tradition. We have to follow the rules come what may," he said.
In reality, unclear judicial procedures are common here.
The same court on Tuesday also failed for the second time to hand down a judgment in a class action suit filed against the state-owned oil company Pertamina over what the plaintiffs claim was an "arbitrary" decision to increase the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by 40 percent.
Judge Ali A. Haky explained that he had not yet reached a decision as he was still recovering from an operation.
"I'm still receiving medical treatment after having eye surgery last week," Ali said, when he opened the session at about 1:30 p.m.
Johnson Panjaitan, one of the lawyers for the LPG consumers, who had been waiting at the courthouse for a judgment for over three hours, regretted Ali's decision as two weeks ago the court had also postponed giving a judgment.
Johnson said that before opening the session, Ali had said he would deliver the judgment in his chambers, but the lawyer rejected Ali's suggestion on the grounds that as the case involved the public domain, the judgment should therefore be delivered in open court.
"I don't know his real reason (for adjourning the session). If he is really sick, he should have told us hours before," he said.
The price of LPG increased from Rp 1,500 to Rp 2,100 per kilogram in November last year.(04) 7