Nowadays, even in the academic world, such as on campuses, plagiarism has become widespread.

“This social fact not only reflects our betrayal of the law and the 1994 World Trade Organization agreements, as well as causing losses to the state and patent and brand owners, but also indicates the absence of a shame culture among entrepreneurs and academicians,” said Andi M. Sommeng, director general of intellectual property rights affairs at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, during a discussion recently.

He said the Attorney General’s Office and the police should intensify efforts to clamp down on sellers of pirated products and that the court should impose harsh punishments on piracy syndicates. A repressive approach, Andi continued, was necessary.

Indonesia has been included by the US Trade Representative on the Priority Watch List since 2008, seven years after it passed laws on patents and copyrights in 2001. However, no significant improvements have come is the past two years, Andi said.

He said the government would continue campaigning to promote the protection of intellectual property rights to uphold the power of the law and increase awareness about the benefits of creativity.

Jerry Aurum, a photographer representing the creative industry in the discussion, said most
entrepreneurs from the creative industry did not bother to file complaints with the police because
they did not believe the police would take action.

The creative industry mushroomed in Bali and Java, especially in big cities, in the wakes of the world economic downturns of 1998 and 2008, which undermined the informal sector at home.

The government has helped develop around 14,000 creative industry enterprises sponsored under the soft-loan scheme disbursed to stimulate the growth of the informal sector and generate job opportunities.

Chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights Consultants’ Association Justisiari Perdana Kusumah was of the same opinion that piracy and the black market would remain rife should law enforcers fail to enforce a sterner approach.

“Piracies and black markets have gone beyond control since those involved in piracy have conspired with corrupt officials at the National Police and the Trade and Industry Ministries,” he said.

Justisiari said the association had sponsored a series of road shows to Bali and East and West Java to help campaign for intellectual property rights and accompany creative industries to register their patents and brand names with the government and provide them with legal advocacy.         

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