Government will Regulate Management of Book Royalty

JAKARTA: The government is currently preparing law for managing book royalties to provide certainty and create a clear legal basis to improve the welfare of authors and other related parties.

With the inclusion of this Government Regulation, it is hoped that it will clarify how royalties for writers and other related parties collected and distributed. This regulation is currently still under discussion and has reached the stage of design consolidation and harmonization with other applicable provisions.

"We need a clear legal basis, especially in the implementation of the withdrawal, collection and distribution of royalties or the sharing of profits from duplication of digital or virtual literature works," said Mr. Anggoro Dasananto, Director of Copyright and Industrial Design at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights when giving a speech at the discussion of Ministerial Regulations related to the Management of Royalties in the Book Sector in Bogor recently.

According to Mr. Anggoro, as quoted from the website dgip.go.id, to provide welfare to the authors and other related parties, creation of a clear legal basis regarding the management of royalties is of upmost priority.

The development of the world of literature in the current digital era has become increasingly advanced. Many books in the form of literary or scientific works can be easily enjoyed or downloaded by the public through digital media.

Nonetheless, authors still face challenges related to piracy. Piracy of written works is still ever-presence, harming authors and other related parties because they do not receive the royalties that they should.

It is undeniable that not all authors can make a living from their work because the current system for collecting royalties and distributing them is not well regulated. Even though the problem of managing royalties already has clear provisions in the Copyright Law (Law Number 28 of 2014).

This Government Regulation, not only intend to respects and recognizes the existence of book authors, but also protects their economic rights. Appreciation of creative works and authors' economic right for will encourage creation of new quality works and creativity.

The government already has experience in optimizing the withdrawal and distribution of song and/or music copyright royalties through Government Regulation Number 56/2021 of Management of Song and/or Music Copyright Royalties, which took effect since last March 2021. With this experience, the Government will be able to regulate the withdrawal and distribution of book royalties more expertly for the prosperity of the authors. (RAA-BDP/su)