U.S. steps up pressure on RI on copyrights piracy

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States renewed calls on Thursday for Indonesia to protect intellectual property rights, citing that piracy had not only cost U.S. companies hundreds of millions of dollars annually but also discouraged potential investors from coming to Indonesia.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance of the U.S. Department of Commerce William H. Lash III said that American firms lost up to "a quarter of a billion dollars" a year due to the unauthorized production of software, DVDs and films in Indonesia.

He said, piracy did not only hurt U.S. companies but also Indonesian companies which sell authorized goods.

"While (the piracy) injures American firms, it also injures Indonesian firms who are trying to compete, trying to feed their families, trying to pay taxes, by selling legitimate software, legitimate films," Lash stressed after a meeting with Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi here.

Lash is the most senior U.S. governmental official to come to Indonesia to address the copyright issue after Indonesia started implementing the new copyright law in July 2003, which aims to strengthen copyright protection in Indonesia. The law says, among other things, that owners of shopping plazas risk being jailed for allowing vendors to sell pirated goods.

As evident today, the law only briefly deters people from selling pirated goods.

Lash said rampant piracy would have a big impact on the investment climate as investors might think twice before investing here.

"Indonesia is a very good friend, a good partner to the U.S. We want our good friend, a good partner like Indonesia to do well, ... and get high quality investments," said Lash.

Separately, director-general for international cooperation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Pos M. Hutabarat, said that despite the introduction of a new, tougher law, piracy was still rampant in Indonesia due to weak law enforcement and the people's lack of awareness on the implications of the issue.

He said the minister would soon start a campaign urging people not to buy pirated products.

Aside from the IPR, Lash and Rini also talked on several other issues, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration, investment in Indonesia's telecommunications sector, bioterrorism, textiles and shrimp export to the U.S.

Lash said that many foreign investors were interested in Indonesia's telecommunications sector, believing the sector had huge potential for growth.

In regards to the huge U.S. agricultural subsidy -- which has been criticized as a reflection of the U.S.' unfairness toward poor nations -- Lash said that the U.S. had always been willing to talk about reducing its agricultural subsidy.

The U.S., European Union and Japan have persistently maintained huge subsidies for their agricultural sectors at the expense of poor nations. This was one of the reasons behind the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico last year.

"What we're trying to do is bring people back to the table and that was Zoellick's agenda," Lash said.

He referred to the recent letter sent by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to trade ministers of all WTO country members, calling for the restart of WTO talks.

According to Lash and Pos, Zoellick is going to meet the ASEAN trade ministers in Singapore on Feb. 13 regarding this issue.