Avoid Plagiarism, Improve Author Welfare Starts Calculation

Children's library (ANTARA)

PADANG - The Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) of West Sumatra (West Sumatra) supports improving welfare for writers through the distribution of royalties that are fair and in favor of the owner of the work.

This was conveyed by the Head of the West Sumatra Ministry of Law and Human Rights Haris Sukamto after holding a discussion forum with more than 600 participants with the background of writers, writers, art activists, students, academics, and the general public on Friday, February 24.

"The welfare of the owners of the work of writing, be it scientific, literary, or the like, must be fought for by their rights and welfare as owners of the work," said Haris Sukamto after the event in Padang.

He stated that copyrighted works are the result of thinking and expertise that is manifested in a tangible form so that they must be respected and protected.

He explained the results of research and policy development carried out by the 2022 Legal and Human Rights Research and Development Agency which became the basis for holding discussion forums.

From the data, it is known that there are reports of potential losses of IDR 116.050 billion from 11 publishers due to copyright infringement according to the report of the Indonesian Publishers Association.

Then the problem of book doubling that is rampant among campuses and learning institutions, as well as the practice of uploading electronic books via the internet.

Haris said that based on Article 44 of Law Number 28 of 2014 concerning Copyright, restrictions on copyright infringement, which states that the use, retrieval, doubling, and/or change of a creation and or product.

"Therefore, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights pays special attention to the rights that should be obtained by the author as the owner of the work, one of which is royalties," he said.

On the other hand, the discussion forum of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of West Sumatra presented qualified players in their respective fields, namely Antonio Rajoli Ginting (First Expert Policy Analyst of Balitbang Kumham RI), Daulay (Lecturer of the Faculty of Law Unand), and Esha Tegar Putra (Sastrawan concurrently a cultural arts researcher).

The discussion forum, named Opini Policy, raised the theme "The Emergency of Royalty Management in the Literacy Sector" which was attended by participants face-to-face and online participants.

Head of the Legal and Human Rights Service Division, Ruliana Pendah Harsiwi, said that from the discussion, it was also known that further regulations were needed regarding the distribution of royalties so that the distribution of rights was distributed fairly and transparently.

"The results of this discussion in West Sumatra will be input on regulations that are being discussed by the Directorate General of Intellectual Property at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia regarding royalty management of literacy," he explained.

Especially for protection, he said, the owner of the work can register copyright through the West Sumatra Ministry of Law and Human Rights Regional Office in order to obtain legal protection and certainty.