Indonesia Targets media piracy

The music Industry in Indonesia, nowadays get into the bad condition because of the copyright piracy. Indonesia music industry began in 1954, when Suyoso Karsono formed the first recording company “Irama”. He established his garage for recording several band albums. He would never realized that this music industry will grow up rapidly include many problems as followed.Suyoso commonly called Mas Yos would very surprised if he knows about the high percentage of music piracy in Indonesia now almost 90% than the original products. This bad situation causes many recording companies bankrupt, and only rested several recording companies which united under the Sound Industry Association of Indonesia (ASIRI).
As an industry, which makes, performs, promotes, protects and maintains the Indonesia music culture and also has given big income for the country as well as has given many employments, it should be saved from destruction. Therefore, the government takes actions in order to minimize and to stop the piracy. The government targets media piracy with a new copyright law that proposed since 2002.
State of the recorded music industry
As we know that many recording companies in Indonesia become extinct. This bad condition was caused by weak copyright as a major problem. Most of recording companies in Indonesia, including the five international majors, are losing money otherwise in danger of bankruptcy. It is impossible to tell at this point how much of this problem reflects competitions from illegal copying and how much may be attributed to the situation. However, pirated copies of Indonesian music appear to be more prevalent than those of foreign music. It is largely because of strong Indonesian preference for domestic music types.
There is a rather small price premium for legitimate music recordings over pirated versions in big cities, perhaps ranging from a multiple of 2 to 4 or 5. Many Indonesian music producers feel it necessary to bring their prices down to competitive range in relation to pirated copies in order to gain an acceptable market share.
The music industry business would expand considerably in the presence of more transparent and effective enforcement. If so, it would help Indonesian musicians considerably. Moreover, considerable scope exists for finding new artists in the countryside and extending income to them through royalties and copyright licenses as the sector expands.
Internet use is very small in Indonesia. There is not a serious problem in terms of downloading electronics files, mainly because there are so few PC’s in Indonesia, nearly all of which are in the workplaces, not homes. Besides, bandwidth is inadequate for purpose and Indonesian music producers tend not to place their files on the internet. This latter decision reflects both technical difficulties and concern over copying. Use of MP3 technologies for file sharing is raising and concern for music producers.
And what about music piracy in Indonesia? In all four types of recording media presented; cassettes, CDs, VCDs and DVDs, the estimated piracy rate for domestic’s product is not at least as high as for foreign products. Firms perceive domestics copying as the major source of piracy. Relatively few are concerned about imports of unauthorized copies, for such products do not have a sizeable market in Indonesia. Furthermore, downloading from internet is not particularly threatening at this time, given the small penetration of PCs into Indonesian use. Piracy is considered a problem by firms of all sizes. An important channel through which these firms must compete with copies is prices. They claim that they must “significantly reduce” their prices in order to compete.
Copyright Law
The common view of copyright problems is that weak enforcement encourages uncompensated copying (piracy) of recorded music and films as well as of computer programs, with the copies distributed widely at low cost. It is important to Indonesia to adopt and enforce stronger copyright law in order to encourage creative activity by local artists and firms, and also to support the transformation of that activity into products that reach the domestic and exports markets. If successful, it would give income for them. The new rights expected to raise the prices of copyrighted goods by reducing the supply of pirated versions. Copyright strengthening also expected to cut sales of imitation products overtime. Copyright protection is central to promoting recorded entertainment industries.
In addition to the improvements proposed in previous reports to the law of Republic of Indonesia, Number 19 year 202 Regarding Copyright (Copyright Law), draft “Right Management Information” (RMI) regulations were apparently finalized but were not issued in 2005, but implementing regulations regarding Technological Protection Measures (TPM) (as covered in article 27 of the Copyright Law) are still badly needed.
Enforcement
Legislation has been improved in the last couple of years, e.g. through the enactment of design protection, the Copyright Law amendments in 2003 and the implementation of the Optical Disc Regulations in April 2005. The Anti Corruption Committee established in 2004 was also identified as a positive point. Moreover, public statements have also been made to emphasize the need to take action against piracy. However, in practice, the level of infringement remains exceptionally high. There are very few prosecutions (none in 2004), the courts are extremely slow and inefficient, and there are frequent complaints about corruption. Indonesia has adequate IP law but very poor enforcement.
As might be expected, the capacity to undertake effective enforcement actions against copyright infringers is limited. There are a number of difficulties to mention.
1. The basic source of the problem is extensive piracy, largely of recorded movies and music. The incentives to copy and distribute such goods are enormous and this has become a significant industry. Even a well-funded enforcement agency would find difficult to make much of a dent in its scope.
2. Funding for the police is extremely low. The police therefore accept payments from complainants (e.g. music recording companies) to defray their costs. This system limits incentive of legitimate companies to complain and, in itself, is a questionable practice from the standpoint of hones and efficient enforcement.
3. There is a considerable scarcity of customs authorities and police personnel.
4. Centralized authorities in Jakarta and Bandung find it impossible to undertake enforcement activities in Indonesia’s widely flung urban and rural areas and coastlines.
5. Under prior law, a complainant had to come to court in Indonesia to make claim of infringement. Foreign companies (and certainly individual artists) often find it not worth the time and effort. The new law is supposed to permit outside copyright owners to retain Indonesian legal representation in such causes.
What need to be done?
1. Ensure effective implementation of civil, administrative and criminal procedures and remedies, including deterrent penalties, as well as reduced cost and length of proceedings.
2. Ensure equal treatment in practice between nationals and foreigners notably in terms of cost of proceedings.
3. Strengthen customs awareness of customs controls at the border.
4. Increase awareness among law enforcement organizations and training for officials.
5. Ensure transparency in administrative, provisional and customs measures procedures and effective action by the newly-established Anti Corruption Committee.
Based on the explanation we can get many inferences.
Enforcement suffers from considerable structural difficulties, including weak capacity, chronic under funding, limited access to enforcement procedures, and non transparency. This situation is unlikely to change for some time.
The recorded music industry may suffer the largest damages from local copying. It is difficult to think their problems closely with such issues as poverty of musicians in rural areas. Nonetheless, the evidence points to remarkably small number of musicians gaining revenue from the current system.
The copyright sectors stand to gain income and activity from stronger copyrights and this process is likely to intensify overtime. Nevertheless, it needs to be understood that stronger copyrights would generate some hardship over the short term for firms and workers engaged in unauthorized copying and distributing. While it is impossible to measure with confidence, it seems probable that employment in copying and selling pirated versions of music is significant in the larger cities. Accordingly, there will be an adjustment problem if stricter enforcement tends to reduce this activity.