As long as people have access to the internet, piracy will always exist. The Indonesian government realize this as well as anyone, which is why they’re planning severe sanctions against people who download pirated content online.
“[People who] download songs or films illegally will be sanctioned with us terminating their internet connections indefinitely. In [South] Korea, the first warning [against illegal downloaders] is that they won’t have internet access anymore,” Head of the Creative Agency Body Triawan Munaf told Kompas right after an anti-piracy meeting with the National Police’s Crime Investigation Agency on Friday.
Triawan was referring to South Korea’s graduated response law, in which illegal downloaders get three strikes or warnings whenever they infringe copyright laws. However, after strike three, their internet accounts would be temporarily suspended for six months, not “indefinitely” as Triawan mentioned.
Similar laws also currently exist in France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
It’s not yet known if and when such regulations would be placed in Indonesia. For one, the government first has to get all of the privately owned internet service providers on board.
And would such a law even be effective in reducing online piracy? This study from Australia’s Monash University “found no connection between graduated response regimes and reduced piracy.”
We’d also argue that terminating people’s internet connections wouldn’t necessarily deter people from downloading pirated content online, considering how easy it is to set up a new internet account in Indonesia.
