Police fail to anticipate copyright violations
JAKARTA (JP): Amid deep concerns over the increasing crimes against artwork, the city police admitted on Tuesday that they had failed to anticipate such crimes as they lacked skilled investigators.
Chief detective of economic affairs Benny Mokalu said the police had failed to actively investigate copyright violations although the law stipulates that such a crime could be investigated even if the victim had not reported it.
Benny said the police were also facing difficulties in investigating violations of intellectual property rights as they lacked funds.
However, he also blamed the public for the rampant copyright violations in the country.
"There is a tendency for people to buy pirated goods instead of the originals for financial reasons," he told a seminar on "Crimes Against Copyright In Artwork".
The seminar was organized by the Indonesian National Gallery and the Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation, following rampant forgery of artwork.
An auction of paintings, touted as the lost works of local and international artists, at Regent Hotel in November last year was decried as a scam by experts since many of the paintings were fakes.
The police have recently submitted five copyright violation cases to the respective prosecutor's offices. One of the cases have already been tried at the Central Jakarta District Court, he said. None of the cases are on painting counterfeiting, he added.
Merwan Yusuf, curator at the Indonesian National Gallery, said he believed antique traders were the first to counterfeit artwork.
"They sell antiques, so they can easily duplicate them because they know the pieces very well," he said.
He said antique traders could include fake artwork among their merchandise since it was difficult for the common man to tell them apart.
Art gallery directors, art dealers, and even painters and sculptors then started to counterfeit artwork, he said.
He added that art counterfeiters usually work in groups comprising an artist, a broker and a legitimator. "They usually counterfeit the works of well-known artists who have passed away and whose works are very valuable."
He suggested that if in doubt, buyers of artwork should consult art curators who had studied the history, philosophy, and sociology of art.
Cita Citrawinda Priapantja of the University of Indonesia said the international community was concerned over inadequate legal protection given to copyright holders by governments.
Director of Copyright, Topography and Industrial Design of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Wolter Simanjuntak, acknowledged the need to improve the current laws on intellectual property rights as they no longer could accommodate certain crimes such as art forgery.
Under the current law, a person who violates the copyright law could face a maximum seven years in jail or a Rp 100 million fine. (01)