New Copyright Law to invigorate businesses

New Copyright Law to invigorate businesses

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The newly passed Copyright Law, when it comes into force, will
provide better protection for copyright holders and will
eventually attract investment, businessmen said on Friday.

Nevertheless, they warned that lack of law enforcement would
most probably undermine the law, which gives better assurances
for copyright holders.

Andrew McBean, president of Microsoft Indonesia, said the new
law would encourage companies like his to expand their markets in
Indonesia.

"This is extremely protective of our intellectual property
rights," McBean told The Jakarta Post.

"With this Copyright Law, we will do more business than usual.
We will work in good faith with local companies."

The new law will come into effect in one year. It is an
amendment of Law No. 12/1997, which was a revision of Law No.
7/1887. The Copyright Law was first introduced in 1982.

McBean said the previous laws used "generic language" that
made it difficult to implement. Meanwhile, the law explains
articles in a specific language.

"So there is no room for misinterpretation," he said.

The new law, adjusted to rulings in the Agreement on Trade
Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), covers various
industries, ranging from science to arts and literature.

Arnel Affandi, general manager of the Recording Industry
Association (ASIRI), said the government should prepare a number
of regulations to support the newly passed law.

He said the government should also ratify the Rome Convention
and the World Intellectual Property Organization's Performances
and Phonograms Treaty to support the ruling.

He, nevertheless, warned that the government should also
ensure better law enforcement. Otherwise, the law would become a
paper tiger.

"If we fail to uphold the law and regulations, the law will be
dead, and alive only for students at law schools," he said.

A. Zen Umar Purba, director general of intellectual property
rights at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights agreed, saying
that the law was one thing, and law enforcement another.

He added that the law clearly stipulated the terms of
protection and provided better assurances for people whose
products were pirated.

"But we talk about the norms here in the law, not the
enforcement," he said.

One of the ways to uphold the law is to penalize violators.

According to the Copyright Law, copyright violations incur a
maximum penalty of seven years in prison or a Rp 5 billion
(US$555,000) fine, while those who publish, display, distribute
or sell pirated materials risk a maximum penalty of five years
imprisonment or a Rp 500 million fine.

McBean, nevertheless, said that despite the clear penalties
stipulated in the law, his company would not easily resort to
legal means to tackle the pirating of Microsoft products.

"Actually those people know that they are doing wrong. Using
our product without paying the license is wrong. But we do not
want to go to court even though the law allows us to do so," he
said.

Microsoft products are often pirated by local software
businesses.

McBean emphasized that his company would use the penalties in
the law to dissuade people from pirating Microsoft products.

Microsoft has won a number of cases against distributors who
sold pirated Microsoft products.