U.S. urges Indonesia to curb piracy

U.S. urges Indonesia to curb 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
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
Trade and Industry 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 of
the Ministry of Trade and Industry, 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 South East 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.