Sub-coordinator for Politics, Law, Human Rights, and Security II of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Surdiyanto representing the Government at a judicial review hearing of the Copyright Law, Tuesday (12/19/2023). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Another judicial review hearing of Law No. 28 of 2014 on Copyright took place in the Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday, December 19, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. The petition No. 84/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by PT Aquarius Pustaka Musik, PT Aquarius Musikindo, and Melly Goeslaw.

The hearing had been scheduled to hear the testimony of an expert for the President, but based on the report of the Registrar’s Office, the Government had requested that the hearing be delayed.

“Is the expert not ready or what?” Chief Justice Suhartoyo asked the Government’s representative.

Sub-coordinator for Politics, Law, Human Rights, and Security II of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Surdiyanto said on behalf of the Government that the initial plan to present two experts was changed to one expert. Therefore, the Government requested a delay of the hearing.

“And because it is the end of the year, we had difficulty [finding an expert available]. So, we’re not prepared administratively and request that [the hearing] be delayed. We have met with our expert, Prof. Ahmad Ramli, Your Honor, and he was ready. However, since we haven’t met the administrative requirement, we ask for a delay,” Surdiyanto explained.

In response, Chief Justice Suhartoyo stressed that the Court would notify the Government of the schedule to present their expert testimony.

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PT Aquarius Pustaka Musik, PT Aquarius Musikindo, and singer Melly Goeslaw challenge provisions on the prohibition imposed on managers of places of commerce against allowing the sale and/or duplication of goods resulting from infringement of copyright and/or relevant rights at the places they manage in Articles 10 and 114 of Law No. 28 of 2014 on Copyright. The Petition was registered with Case No. 84/PUU-XXI/2023. 

The Petitioners revealed a concrete case in which social media platforms broadcast songs or master recordings belonging to the Petitioners without their permission. However, the Copyright Law has not regulated the accountability of digital service providers, especially ones that have user-generated content (UGC)

The Petitioners sued one of platform providers over the prevalence of contents that violated the Petitioners’ copyright of their songs or masters, but it claimed that based on statutory regulations, platform providers are not liable for contents uploaded by users nor for taking down those contents upon objections by the copyright holders.

The Petitioner believes the Copyright Law has not regulated such things so Articles 10 and 114 of the Copyright Law are the chief harbor of prohibition against any place of commerce allowing services or duplication of contents that infringe on copyrights. However, those articles have not accommodated current phenomena such as UCG-based social media.

As such, in the petitum, the Petitioners request that the Court declare Articles 10 and 114 of the Copyright Law conditionally unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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