Regulations expected to curb discs piracy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government expects the recent enactment of a set of regulations on optical discs will enable it to significantly curb rampant piracy, which one estimate says accounts for about 90 percent of optical discs produced in the country.

The Ministry of Industry's director general for agricultural, chemical and forestry products, Benny Wahyudi, said that Government Regulation No. 29/2004 on high technology production facilities for optical discs should substantially reduce the estimated 320 million pirated optical discs, which come mostly in the form of DVDs, VCDs, CDs and software products.

"Most of the legal loopholes for producing pirated discs are now closed with the regulation," said Benny, adding that the regulation was supported by two decrees, one by the Ministry of Industry and the other from the Ministry of Trade, all of which came into effect in April.

The rulings would require all the 150 optical disc producing factories, of which about 140 are allegedly involved in some form of piracy, to obtain specific operating licenses from the ministry.

The factories also have to register their machines, stamp factory identification codes on the discs they produce and file quarterly reports on their production activities with the ministry.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance -- a United States-based industry group focusing on preventing copyright violations -- cited the enactment of the optical disc regulation as a positive sign in Indonesia's battle against piracy.

The IIPA estimated that 92 percent of movies, 80 percent of music and 87 percent of software sold in Indonesia was pirated, leading to potential losses of at least US$203.6 million to copyright holders.

Due to the high piracy rate and lax enforcement of the intellectual property laws, the United States Trade Representative's Office has placed Indonesia in its Priority Watch List since 1996.

The USTR has announced that it will conduct an out-of-cycle review to monitor Indonesia's progress on intellectual property rights, which could lead to a reclassification of its status.

The Priority Watch List, which consists of 14 countries, is one step below the most severe category of Priority Foreign Country. A country categorized as a Priority Foreign Country could have its preferential trade benefits revoked. (002)