'Universities complicit in book piracy activities'
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Chairman of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI) Makfudin Wirya Atmaja complained on Tuesday about rampant piracy at hundreds of universities across the country and blamed it on the lack of morality among people and poor efforts to curb the crime.
According to Makfudin, at least three of his books on management science had been copied by most university libraries and sold to students at very low prices.
The lecturer on management theories at the Center for Management Development (PPM) also said that businesses that did the photocopying of books should held accountable in the piracy and indeed "they can also be accused of violating Law No. 19/2002 on copyrights."
Copyright violations carry a maximum sentence of five years in jail or a fine of Rp 500 million (US$56,180).
"I was surprised when I once visited the library of a popular state university in Jakarta and found out that some books have been copied and sold to students.
"If only about 1,000 students at the campus buy such pirated copies each year, how about other students at other universities nationwide?," he asked, while trying to count the number of students from the country's 45 state universities and 1,846 private universities.
Considering that expensive retail prices have fueled the production of pirated books, Makfudin said that IKAPI was seeking ways to lower the prices of original books amid increases in the cost of paper and various taxes.
Meanwhile, IKAPI deputy chairman on copyright and piracy affairs Ricky Tobing urged for rigid enforcement of the new copyright law to prevent piracy, which has caused the industry to suffer great losses.
He said a number of local and international publishers had been forced to cease business here or moved to other countries due to the legal uncertainty in Indonesia.
Ricky was referring to local publishers Djambatan, Pradnya Paramita and Dian Rakyat and Singapore-based Thomson Learning and South Western Publishing. The five publishers either went bankrupt or moved abroad last year.
There are no exact figures on the losses suffered by the publishing industry in this country, but IKAPI made a striking revelation.
"In a raid on the Pisangan Timur area in East Jakarta late on Friday night, a publisher and the police confiscated 1,907 pirated books worth Rp 10 billion. The books were ready to be circulated, while thousands of others were still in the process of being copied," Ricky said.
It was the fourth raid they have conducted along with the police this year. Even though he praised the police for the cooperation, Ricky, nevertheless expressed pessimism, because the legal process of the previous cases "remain suspended even at this point."