Indonesia: Battle over Intellectual Property Rights
Recently, the US Trade Representative (USTR) released its annnual Special 301, an analysis on US trading partners’ seriousness to reassert the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) within their respective judicial soils.
Despite government's effort to crackdown IPR hijacking activities, the USTR placed Indonesia in Priority Watch List, alongside IPR violator heavy weights such as China and Russia.
The slipping of Indonesia's status from Watch List to Priority Black List was considered a slap on the face by Indonesian officials.
Quoted by The Jakarta Globe through Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, the state said it is concerned for Indonesia's downranking.
From time to time, the national police destroys massive amount of pirated CDs in public and this is paraded by the local media.
In the capital Jakarta, pirated DVDs and CDs are omnipresent. The “sidewalk retailers” can be found every 50 meters in popular hangouts in Central and West Jakarta.
William on his blog Etersoul agrees that Indonesia should remain on the blacklist.
Lalu bagaimana tanggapanku sendiri? Aku sendiri akan mengatakan dengan lantang SETUJU!!
Mengapa sampai aku bisa mengatakan hal ini? Realita di lapangan memang menunjukkan kalau orang-orang di Indonesia ga menghargai karya yang dibuat oleh orang lain, mungkin karena miskin kreatifitas atau memang pengen maju dengan cara yang instan. Tapi untuk miskin kreatifitas aku sendiri merasa ga terlalu benar, karena toh banyak anak bangsa yang akhirnya bisa membawa negara ini menjadi lebih terkenal dalam hal yang positif.
[…]
Biarpun polisi bertindak untuk memberantas obat-obat palsu, DVD bajakan, atau bahkan sampai merambah ke dunia maya dengan menangkap para plagiarist artikel, tetap saja ga akan efektif selama di otak orang-orang yang hidup di negara ini hanya cara instan saja yang terpikirkan. What a shame.
[…]
Despite the police's effort to tackle piracy of medicines, DVD, and even as their effort branched out to the virtual world where they try to stop online article plagiarizers, their work will not be effective as long as they put in their mind (how to benefit themselves with) the easiest ways possible. What a shame.
Creativesimo, a local community blog, speaks about the irony of this downranking:
Selamat buat Indonesia! Setelah merilis undang-undang informasi dan transaksi elektronik menyusul undang-undang hak atas kekayaan intelektual, lalu disusul beberapa penggrebekan sporadis – baik sekadar proyek ataupun serius – Indonesia mendapat ganjaran. Peringkatnya naik dalam daftar hitam pembajakan software, kalo dulu Watch List sekarang Priority Watch List. Huebat!
Indonesia sekarang sekelas dengan Rusia dan China dalam hal pembajakan. Tetapi: apakah pencapaian teknologi informasi kita sama dengan mereka? Jelas kalah jauh! Lalu mengapa yang kita perangi adalah pembajakan dan bukannya kebodohan atau ketinggalan
Indonesia is now on the same class with Russia and China in terms of intellectual rights violation. But: do we have the same IT achievements like them? Obviously we're left way behind! So why are we fighting the (IPR) violations instead of fighting the lack of education or our (education) lag?
Government's willingness to eradicate IPR piracy is shown with the establishement of Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights under the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Republic Of Indonesia. However, the police's knowledge to detect illegal softwares is still poor [id].
This May mark the launch of Indonesia's first Intellectual Property Academy. The school, which located in in Depok, West Java, is founded in collaboration with the Japanese government, through Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
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