Magazine chief editor jailed for copyright violation

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced a monthly magazine's chief editor on Monday to one year in jail for illegally publishing a number of racy photographs featuring Ratna Sari Dewi, one of former president Soekarno's wives.

Defendant Warsito Wahono, who directs Indonesia's What's On magazine, was also ordered to pay Rp 10 million in damages to Dewi.

In its verdict, the court found Warsito guilty of the illegal publication of the photos in edition No. 138 of the magazine, which hit the newsstands in November 1998.

The photos were taken from a book by Dewi titled Madame D Syuga.

"The defendant is also guilty of publishing materials that have been banned by the government," said presiding Judge Rukmini.

The panel of judges, which also included Bambang Sriwulan and Panusunan Harahap, rejected Warsito's defense that he had not violated copyright law as his magazine had mentioned the source of the pictures in the article, which primarily concerned Dewi's controversial life.

Warsito was charged under article 44 of Law No. 12/1997 on copyright, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail and liability to pay damages of up to Rp 100 million.

Previously, prosecutor M. Manik recommended that the court sentence Warsito to two years in jail and order him to pay Rp 20 million in damages.

Warsito told reporters after the hearing that he would appeal.

The government banned Dewi's book Madame D Syuga in 1993. Dewi married Soekarno in the early 1960s.

Photographer Hideki Fuji took the pictures of her between May and August 1993. They were later published in the book by Scholar Publisher's Inc.

Dewi, otherwise known as Naoko Nemoto, possesses the copyright to the book as the publisher went bankrupt some years ago.

Dewi, who claimed that the magazine had never asked her for permission to publish the pictures, reported Warsito to the Jakarta Police on Feb. 9, 1999.

She filed two complaints, one of defamation and one of copyright violation. However, Warsito could only be charged with copyright violation as the defamation action was considered statute barred due to the fact that under the Criminal Law Procedures Code the right to take such an action only subsists for one year after a complaint has been lodged.

Violations of copyright law are nothing new here. However, few of the cases come before the criminal courts despite the existence of the law on copyright.

According to prosecutor Manik, Dewi's case was the first of its kind handled by the Central Jakarta Prosecutors Office.

Usually, a person or corporation that is a victim of a copyright violation files a lawsuit in the civil courts against the alleged violators.

Giant computer producer Microsoft Corp. sued five local computer vendors last year for illegally installing some of its software in the computers they sold.

The Central Jakarta District Court and the West Jakarta District Court found the vendors to have violated copyright law and ordered them to pay between US$800,000 and $4.4 million in damages.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance estimated revenue losses from copyright piracy in Indonesia in 1999 reached US$186 million.