RI tries to mend image on intellectual property rights

RI tries to mend image on intellectual property rights

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri declared war against
intellectual property piracy on Friday in a bid to help the
country improve its battered position on the world stage.

Speaking on the second anniversary of Intellectual Rights Day
here, Megawati underlined the importance of concerted efforts to
combat violations against intellectual property rights.

"Many reports, especially from the media, show that the
government has yet to implement adequate measures to deal with
the piracy issue," she said.

Underlining the significance of establishing a special program
to fight against such unlawful practices, Megawati reminded the
audience that increasing piracy was a major weakness in the
country, especially in trade negotiations with other countries.

Megawati made the remarks in response to the almost completely
uncontrolled violations of intellectual property rights in
Indonesia. The U.S. government has placed Indonesia among the
most watched countries in property rights violations.

It is no longer a secret that practically all computer users
in this country, for example, use pirated software, ranging from
operating systems to antivirus software and a host of other
applications, almost all of which have been produced and released
by well-known software companies in the United States.

Besides being cheap, another reason why officially licensed
software is not popular is the difficulty, for most Indonesians,
of finding outlets that sell it.

Indonesia is also a haven for piracy in the entertainment
business, in which it is common knowledge that at several trading
spots in the capital people openly sell pirated VCDs and
cassettes.

"The violation (of intellectual property rights) has created
problems, not just from legal, economic, social
and moral perspectives, but also in international trade ... as
several countries confront us with the piracy issue in trade
negotiations," the President remarked.

She reiterated that besides becoming the Achilles' heel of the
country in international trade negotiations, increasing piracy
would hamper people's creativity.

Indonesia already has law on intellectual property rights,
which carries heavy sentences for violators. But its
implementation has not been as good as it should have been, due
to an absence of guidelines on its implementation.

The intellectual property rights law is currently undergoing
revision at the House of Representatives.

Despite the various raids carried out repeatedly by the
authorities in Jakarta and other big cities to confiscate pirated
copies of music and movie VCDs, books and computer software, no
major changes have occurred.

Therefore the decision by the West Jakarta District Court in
September last year to order an Indonesian company to pay the
American software giant Microsoft Corp. a total of US$4.4 million
in damages constitutes a milestone for jurisprudence in the
country.

Microsoft won its legal battle against the Indonesian company,
PT Kusumo Megah Jaya Sakti, for installing its software on
computers the firm sold to consumers without a license.

The giant U.S. software company won a legal battle against
software piracy for the second time in October last year
committed by four local computer dealers in the Central Jakarta
District Court.

The court ordered PT Panca Putra Komputindo, Altec Computer,
HJ Computer and HM Computer to pay the plaintiff a total
compensation of US$ 4.7 million.

According to the verdict, Microsoft as the copyright owner had
suffered financial losses because it had not permitted the
accused to install its software in computers they sold to the
public.

Meanwhile, Minister for Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza
Mahendra said on Friday that the public still lacked an awareness
of the importance of registering inventions or creations for
patent or property rights protection.

He cited as an example that over the past 10 years there were
only 29,951 requests for patents or rights, with 17,141 of them
fulfilling the requirement to receive certificates.

"Should the public be more aware of the need to register its
creations or innovations, it would be easier for the government
to crack down against the act of piracy," the minister said in
the speech.

Friday's modest ceremony at the State Palace was also attended
by National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.