Once Mekel's Defense: I Only Performed Dewa 19 Songs That I Created

Press conference at Kiosk Ojo Keos, Jakarta, Friday. (Photo: Rifky Nugraha/VOI)

JAKARTA - The series of royalties between Once Mekel and Ahmad Dhani still leaves various stories. One of them is the clarification of the former singer Roman Picisan who said that Dewa 19's songs that have been performed so far are just works that he created.

"I'm clarifying here. I don't perform Dewa songs except for one or two that I created. Jealous, I created it with Dhani. Dhani made the lyrics, I made the tone. I don't think it's a problem because one song I performed was not a competition with Dewa," said Once when met at Kios Ojo Keos, Jakarta, Friday.

In addition, Once also stated two things that the public should know about this problem.

"I gave a warning first. First, I am not the type of person who violates the law. Even if I want to try to change the law, I will give advice by constructive means," said Once.

"Secondly, I really care about the fate of fellow musicians, especially creators who do not have a fate as great as Ahmad Dhani. In fact, some time ago I also helped fight for the rights of the creator who actually wanted to be removed through lawsuits of certain labels. And we have won it," he continued.

It didn't stop there, according to Once, there were two root problems that caused Ahmad Dhani to file a lawsuit against him.

"I see this problem on both sides. First, a legal problem in which there is a lack of understanding of positive legal provisions, which means the applicable law," he added.

"The moral right depends on which context you want to see. As a layman, moral rights are the right to deal with our feelings. Using people's songs, we should pay for the song," he explained.

"But in the context of the Copyright Law, moral rights are the rights attached to the creator for his name to be included. Then, the right so that his creation is not changed arbitrarily so as to degrade his status," he added.

"Second, is a more personal matter. Maybe the sense of justice is not fulfilled or actually more personal, which should not be revealed here," concluded Once.

Panji Prasetyo as Once Mekel's attorney added that if seen for a long time, this form of attack was based on personal problems.

"The attack is not just a legal problem. So it's a personal problem, right, it seems like that. We were laughing. We know there are people who like sensations," said Panji.