Vendors and users unaware of new law against piracy

Vendors and users unaware of new law against piracy

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It seems very difficult for the government to set up a task
force to enforce the law on intellectual property rights, even in
the area of computer software alone, since piracy is so
commonplace that there is no public perception of it being a
serious offense.

There is no doubt that the country's 1.32 million population
of computer literate are unaware or ignorant of the law which
will come into effect in less than five months, on July 1.

A number of vendors and buyers in the buzzing Harco Glodok
Plaza electronic market in West Jakarta, one of the largest
computer centers in the capital, admitted on Saturday they
continued to take advantage of pirated software.

The software are reproduced in the millions, and offer a vast
range of programs, from word processing, to design, to
spreadsheets and accounting, to children's educational tools, and
of course, to games.

"We haven't yet been informed about the enforcement of the new
law; besides, we don't think piracy is a serious offense," said
one the vendors, who runs a shop on the second floor.

The vendor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The
Jakarta Post that almost all of the computer software in her shop
were copies.

"There is perhaps only one original software available in this
shop," she said, referring to a transtool, a language translator
program.

She said she was not the only vendor in the city's biggest
electronic market who traded pirated versions of computer
software, mainly because they were cheap.

The pirated computer software business is booming in the
country. Business Software Alliances (BSA) reported in June last
year that pirated software accounted for 88 percent of
Indonesia's software market, inflicting losses worth US$79
million to software producers.

BSA data also showed that Indonesia ranked third in software
piracy after China and Vietnam.

Director General of Intellectual Property Rights at the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Abdul Bari Azed, revealed
that in 2002, the government lost Rp 290 billion in tax revenues
because of piracy.

It is believed that government offices also utilize pirated
software.

In preparation for the enactment of the intellectual property
rights law, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is
establishing a task force whose first job is to inform the
general public about Law No. 19/2002, which carries severe
penalties for those who use, trade or simply facilitate the trade
of pirated software.

The law says that deliberately broadcasting, displaying,
circulating and selling materials without copyright is subject to
a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine
of Rp 500 million (US$56,300). The new law also imposes the same
punishment for the unauthorized copying of computer software for
commercial purposes.

Warno, a computer technician at Glodok Harco Plaza, insisted
that people bought pirated software because of their cheap price
and high accessibility.

"You can get a statistics software for only Rp 15,000, far
than the original price of around $100," he said.

Another computer technician, Sony, said that an original
Microsoft Windows 2000 program was priced at US$180, compared to
the Rp 10,000 pirated version, which was of the same quality as
the original.

Sony, who works for a computer software outlet in Yogyakarta,
said that as in Jakarta, pirated software was a profitable
business in the sultanate town, long known as a college town.

"If you ask students and lecturers in the city about what kind
of software they use, the answer will be, 'the pirated version',"
he said by telephone.

The general disregard of intellectual property rights is so
common here that people feel no guilt in using or trading pirated
goods.

Budi Santoso, who uses a computer regularly, believed that the
use of pirated software did not matter if it was only for
domestic purposes.

"I always come here to look for pirated software for my
computer at home," he said, while browsing pirated computer
software in Glodok.