Police fail to anticipate copyright violations
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)