Music royalty evaders on the hot seat

Music royalty evaders on the hot seat

JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of entertainment businesses here have
been reported by the Indonesian Creative Acts Foundation (YKCI)
to the city police for refusing to pay music royalties.

"We have no choice but to report them to the police after a
series of negotiations failed," Candra Darusman, general manager
of the YKCI, told The Jakarta Post and Republika at city police
headquarters yesterday.

Candra added that the foundation was determined to bring one
of the operators to court in the near future to deter any such
future negligence.

He, however, refused to reveal the identity of the
businessman.

Maj. Jimmy P. Sinaga, chief of the product and commerce unit
of the economic investigative office at the city police, said
that police summoned a number of entertainment businessmen over
the alleged music royalty evasion after receiving reports from
YKCI.

"Some of the businessmen promised to pay the royalty after we
talked to them," said Jimmy, adding that the businessmen are now
negotiating with the YKCI over the rate.

Jimmy said that he preferred to use persuasion in tackling the
case, although he did not rule out the possibility that force
would be used if all attempts to persuade the businessmen to pay
the royalty prove futile.

The YKCI was founded by local musicians in 1990 to collect
music royalties from users of both local and foreign music.

Right

Earlier, during a hearing with the City Council, Candra said
the foundation had the right to collect royalties for 19,000
local songs and over a million foreign ones.

The foundation is cooperating with its counterparts in several
foreign countries to achieve its mission.

Under the cooperation agreements, the foreign counterparts
have agreed to hand over royalties for Indonesian songs they
collect in their respective countries to YKCI, while in exchange
YKCI agreed to channel royalties of foreign songs it collects in
Indonesia to them.

According to the copyright law which was approved by DPR in
1982 and its amended 1987 version, music users, including pubs,
discos, hotels, restaurants and theaters, are obliged to pay
royalties.

There are between 2,000 and 3,000 such businesses in the city
alone.

But only around 20 percent of them paid royalties in 1992 with
a total amount of Rp 800 million ($372,600), and around 50
percent in 1993 paid Rp 1.1 billion ($512,340) in fees in 1993.
(jsk)