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.