Copyright law in Indonesia is a legal framework that encourages entrepreneurs to run their business in Indonesia by providing legal protection on intangible, proprietary assets of an organisation or an individual.
Therefore, it is critical for business owners to understand copyright law in Indonesia so that they can dissuade competitors from stealing their creations and profiting from them. Copyright in Indonesia for businesses cover all services and products, marketing and training materials, proprietary images, written materials, audio works, etc.
It is a powerful weapon to combat infringement particularly for businesses that are highly competitive in the Indonesian market. As a result, it is vital for all business owners or aspiring entrepreneurs to understand Indonesian copyright law and how they work.
According to a survey done by the Global Intellectual Property Center, among the 38 countries around the world, Indonesia was ranked 33rd for their level of intellectual property protection in the world. The result signifies that many businesses do not see copyright as important and the infringements cases in Indonesia are still common without many legal consequences.
The majority of the infringement cases in Indonesia are related to software piracies and the piracies of songs as well as music.
There are two types of copyrights in Indonesia in terms of the duration of its protection: 50-year legal protection and 70-year legal protection.
Items under 70-year legal protection include music and songs, books and written works, speeches and lectures, materials and objects for educational purposes, musical dramas, operas, choreographies, stage plays and other performances, maps, calligraphy, batik, and ikat, fine arts, designs and architectural works.
Items under 50-year legal protection include cinematography, photography, portraits, video games, computer software and programs, translations, adaptations and interpretations from original works, creation and data compilations by computers and other digital tools.
The current legislation for copyright in Indonesia is Law Number 28 of 2014 on Copyright (the Copyright Law). The Indonesian government, mainly through the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) under the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia (MOLHR).
The applicable law pertaining to electronic information, namely Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Transaction and Information, strictly states that any electronic information or documents compiled to be an intellectual work, website or any intellectual work contained thereof are protected as an intellectual property based on the relevant prevailing laws and regulations.
The DGIP is the centralised intellectual property agency that deals with all administrative work with respect to the recordation, assignment and licensing of copyright. Within the DGIP, the Directorate of Copyright and Industrial Design deals specifically with copyright, and its duties are as follows:
- to prepare the drafting and implementation of policies;
- to provide technical assistance and supervision; and
- to evaluate and report the application, publication, examination, certification, documentation, and provision of customer service for copyright, neighbouring rights and industrial design.
Under the Copyright Law, copyright protects any work in the field of science, art and literature. The Copyright Law then further specifies the specific types of work that are protected by copyright in Indonesia:
- books, pamphlets, typographical arrangement (namely, the artistic aspect with respect to the composition and shape of literary works), and all other literary works;
- public talks, lectures, speeches and other similar works;
- visual aids made for educational and scientific purposes;
- songs and music with or without lyrics;
- dramatic works, musical dramas, dances, choreography, puppet shows and pantomimes;
- fine art works in all forms such as paintings, drawings, engravings, calligraphy, sculptures, statues or collages;
- applied art works;
- architectural works;
- maps;
- batik art works or other pattern and motive arts;
- photographic works;
- portraits;
- cinematographic works;
- translations, interpretations, alterations, anthologies, databases, adaptations, arrangements, modifications and other works resulting from a transformation;
- translations, adaptations, arrangements, transformations or modifications of traditional cultural expressions;
- compilation of work or data, whether in a format that can be read by a computer program or by any other media;
- compilation of traditional cultural expressions provided that the compilation is an original work;
- video games; and
- computer programs.
The Copyright Law protects three types of rights: moral, economic and neighbouring rights.
Moral rights are the inherent right given to the creator of the work to:
- put or omit his or her name in the copies of the work with respect to the use of his or her work in public;
- use his or her alias or pseudonym;
- change his or her work in accordance with public propriety;
- change the title and sub-title of the work; and
- defend his or her right in the case of any distortion, mutilation, or modification, or any other actions that harm his or her reputation.
Economic right is the exclusive right of a creator or copyright holder to obtain economic benefit from his or her work by:
- publishing his or her work;
- duplicating his or her work into any shape, form and format;
- translating his or her work;
- making adaptations, arrangements or transformations of his or her work;
- distributing his or her work or the copies thereof;
- displaying/showing his or her work;
- announcing his or her work;
- communicating his or her work; and
- leasing out his or her work.
Meanwhile, neighbouring rights are the rights related to copyright, which constitute exclusive rights including the moral and economic right of a performer, and the economic right of a phonogram producer and broadcasting institutions.
There are three types of work that cannot be protected by a copyright:
- any work that has not been manifested in a concrete form;
- any idea, procedure, system, method, concept, principal, invention or data, even though it has been disclosed, stated, described, explained, or incorporated into a work; and
- any tools, objects or products that are created solely to solve technical problems or those that are formed only to meet functional needs.
Under the Copyright Law, there are specific articles on limitation of copyright use and anything that falls within such limitations would not be considered as copyright infringement. The standards used to determine whether a particular use is considered as fair is governed under the Copyright Law.
Conclusion
Copyright protection was only guaranteed for 50 years under the terms of the Old Copyright Law. However, copyright protection in Indonesia has lasted for 70 years since the New Copyright Law took effect in October 2014. However, if a legal entity owns a work, the protection period is still 50 years from the date of publication. This time frame refers to the time period following the death of the product’s inventor. Books, artwork, songs, various forms of music, and architectural works are examples of such products.
When copyright laws are broken, the copyright holder has the legal authority to take any of the legal options. The copyright owners has the option of filing criminal charges against infringers. They may act against those who engage in commercial copyright piracy. A copyright holder’s win in court can result in prison sentences and fines ranging from 500 million to 2 billion rupiah for individuals who infringe copyright rules.