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Expert defends local artisan in copyright violation case

An art expert testified in court Tuesday in defense of a Balinese artisan accused of copyright violation by a Hong Kong-based silver jewelry company

Irawaty Wardany (The Jakarta Post)
Denpasar
Wed, July 9, 2008

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Expert defends local artisan in copyright violation case

An art expert testified in court Tuesday in defense of a Balinese artisan accused of copyright violation by a Hong Kong-based silver jewelry company.

The case has become the focus of public interest since reports the company had registered the copyrights of hundreds of Indonesia's traditional silver jewelry designs and motifs.

John Hardy International Ltd. has accused its former employee, Ketut Deni Aryasa, of illegally copying the company's copyrighted silver jewelry design called "Batu Kali" in his design called "Crocodile Skin".

The expert, Tjokorda Udiana Nindhia Pemayun from Denpasar's Indonesia Institute of Arts, testifying as a witness for the defense, stated that even if two people had a similar idea, that idea would take different forms during the creation process.

"After examining the two products I saw they did not look exactly the same. Batu Kali tends to be oval and the motifs are arranged asymmetrically whereas the Crocodile Skin design has smaller round and dome-shaped pieces and the motifs are placed symmetrically," he told The Jakarta Post here Tuesday.

He said the texture also was different.

"Batu Kali has a smoother texture than Crocodile Skin," he said.

He argued that for a design to be a copy, it had to look exactly the same as the original.

"I did not see that in those two silver jewelry designs," he said.

But for Pemayun, the issues goes deeper -- to the company's action in copyrighting Indonesia's cultural heritage.

"What concerns me the most is the facts, which were disclosed in court, that the company has copyrighted 800 of our country's traditional motifs, 12 of which are Balinese traditional motifs that have been used for ages by our silver artisans in Celuk, Gianyar," he said.

The motifs include the "Palu" (hammer) motif that Balinese artisans usually apply on brass bowls (bokor), the "Jawan Keplak" silver motif that has been known for centuries in Celuk, the "Tulang Naga" motif from Pulo Village, Lumajang, in East Java, the "Batik Kawung" motif that is mostly used by batik makers in Yogyakarta and Solo and the "Dayak" motif from Kalimantan.

The copyrights of all those motifs have been registered in both Indonesia and the United States.

It was reported that the company was in the process of registering the copyrights of another 1,000 of Indonesia's traditional motifs.

Nindhia questioned how it was possible for a foreign company to take such control over traditional Indonesian motifs.

But the company wants only to demonstrate its commitment to its investors, according to Juliana Simanjuntak from the legal division of PT Karya Tangan Indah (KTI), the name used by John Hardy Ltd. in Indonesia.

"We just wanted to catch the thief in our own house," she said.

Deni Aryasa worked for KTI from 2000 to 2003 and, according to Juliana, he signed a contract with the company pledging not to copy any KTI designs.

"Apparently he established his own company a year before he left his job at KTI," she said.

She said that because of the case, investors in the company, which provided jobs directly for 800 people and for 600 others as vendors, were threatening to pull out from the company.

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