Inul intimidated over piracy allegation

The Jakarta Post   |  Tue, 11/11/2008 8:05 AM  |  People

INUL DARATISTA: (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

JAKARTA: Dangdut singer Inul Daratista has received intimidating text messages from unknown senders after being reported to the police for allegedly pirating Indonesian songs for her karaoke business, her lawyer said.

“Many of her employees have also received the intimidating messages, which demanded Inul to hand over Rp 5 billion (about US$500,000) for her alleged crime,” her lawyer, Hotman Paris, was quoted as saying by detik.com.

Songwriter Deddy Dores, together with a number of Indonesian artists whose songs had been used at Inul’s thriving Inul Vista karaoke outlets, reported the singer to the police through Deddy’s lawyer, Andar Situmorang.

Inul, who denied the allegations, said she had paid royalties to the Indonesian Copyrights Committee and that the songs had already been copied to the karaoke machines she had purchased for her outlets.  

Deddy later retracted his allegation against Inul, saying that it was “wrongly addressed”. He also fired Andar as his lawyer.

Hotman said he was still studying the case and did not speculate about the people who had intimidated Inul.

“Many people envy Inul, who now has a lot of karaoke outlets,” he said, referring to the successful dangdut singer, who started her career performing in rural villages. — JP

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