Protection of Performers’ Rights under Indonesian Copyright Law and International Conventions

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze performers’ rights in Indonesian Copyright Law compared to some international conventions, namely the Rome Convention, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement), the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (the WPPT), and the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (the BTAP). It also aims to find out whether or not Indonesian Copyright Law is in line with the BTAP and to recommend what the country should do when ratifying the BTAP. The research uses a normative approach, by way of analyzing certain provisions in Indonesian Copyright Laws and international conventions and incorporating materials or information from books, journals and Internet sources as supporting arguments. The method of analysis is a comparative one. The paper finds that Indonesia’s Copyright Act of 2002 provided only minimal rights to performers and was not in line with the TRIPS Agreement because, unlike the Agreement, the Act did not grant performers protection of unfixed performance. In relation to performers’ rights, Indonesia’s Copyright Act of 2014 is better than the Rome Convention because, unlike the Convention, the Act confers moral rights. Performers’ rights under the Copyright Act of 2014 are very similar to those in the WPPT. Nevertheless, in respect of the right of integrity, the Act gives better protection than the WPPT. The moral rights and economic rights of performers in the Copyright Act of 2014 are quite similar to those in the BTAP. However, as long as the definition of “fixation” in the Act is not extended to audiovisual fixation, the Act cannot be understood to grant moral rights and economic rights to audiovisual performers. Therefore, as the stance of the Copyright Act of 2014 is not yet in line with the BTAP and the current situation in Indonesia is not ready to protect audiovisual performers, the paper recommends that, when ratifying the BTAP, the country avail itself of the leniency found in the BTAP and amend the Copyright Act of 2014 to be in line with the Treaty.