Monday, June 8, 2015

Criminal copyright actions under the new Indonesian Copyright Law

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The new copyright law requires a formal complaint from a copyright holder. The debate around this centred around whether the police are capable of acting alone, without copyright holder input, given how complex offences are. A mass industry wide complaint now has been filed to try to get the police to act on a general basis.

A large number of general complaints have been made to the police about illegal copyright infringement of domestic copyrights. The complaints concern illegal infringement at Karaoke nightspots, through illegal downloads and illegal CD/DVD copies. The complaints have been made about infringing acts in cities across the country. Members of Parliamentary Commission 10 (which covers IPR issues) said they had reported the infringements in order to meet the requirement of the new Copyright law that formal complaints needed to be filed. They formally asked the Police Criminal Investigation team Bareskrim to act on these cases.

The police have stated that they are preparing to work with the Department for the Creative Economy on a task force to combat copyright infringement. Many local musicians and celebrities joined with the Recording Industry Association of Indonesia, the Artists and Singers & Songwriters Association of Indonesia, and the Indonesian Forum for Music to support this step.

As a result the obligation has now been placed on the police to investigate. Reading between the lines what has been filed is a set of general complaints with little evidence, but hopefully this is enough for the police to kick off their own investigations.  This will be a real police test. Can they effectively act on a general complaint, or do they need specific case by case evidence filed by the copyright holder?

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