Legal Literacy - This article discusses copyright and ethics in musical creation, especially in the context of covering songs or re-singing other people's songs. The article also explains the legal consequences and dispute resolution efforts related to copyright infringement.
In the digital age and information technology disruption like today, most of the time, activities, and human interactions are forced to shift to the virtual world. Whether because it is far more efficient in reaching many things, the internet with its rapidly developing technology provides a variety of services and features that are not only informative-actual, educative, but also entertainment media that can be easily enjoyed by all groups.
Besides being connoisseurs and viewers, many people are now eagerly competing to get involved in creating and working with their respective abilities and characters. And we can see now how the term “content creator” seems to have become a new profession that is promising in the era of digitalization like today. And one small example of a work that is often enjoyed by many people is music or songs.
We can see, for example, on the You-Tube platform, how many tens of millions of songs are played every day or how many hundreds of thousands of song titles are searched for by people every minute. Besides the fairly large and promising income, presenting a musical work is ultimately a kind of commodity that can reach popularity much faster. However, even though it feels like an easy and common activity, it does not mean that every person or content creator can arbitrarily create or produce their work. Many provisions must also be considered, not only written rules but also ethics in creating.
We can observe this from the events that have occurred recently. The behavior of covering songs or re-singing other people's songs has become a discourse and controversy that now makes social media timelines filled with pro and con comments and opinions regarding Copyright, ethics, and legal consequences. In fact, some musicians, creators, or those who claim to own songs that are often covered feel keberatan whether because the content creator does not include the name of the song owner, there is no good faith to ask for permission beforehand, or there is no mutual agreement, even to the point of being considered a violation of Copyright.
Copyright and Creative Ethics
If referring to the explanation of Article 1 Number 1 Law Number 28 of 2014 what is meant by Copyright is the exclusive right of the creator that arises automatically based on declarative principles after a creation is realized in a tangible form without reducing restrictions in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations.
Copyright is an exclusive right that not only includes economic rights to obtain economic benefits from the creation, but also moral rights that are perpetually attached to the Creator, for example, to include or not include their name on copies in connection with the use of their creation for the public as can be seen in Article 5 of the Copyright Law.
And for common knowledge, not all actions of covering a song can be said to infringe copyright, provided that several terms and conditions are met. This can be seen in Article 43 letter d of the Copyright Law which states that the act of and dissemination of Copyright content through information and communication technology media that is non-commercial and/or benefits the Creator or related parties, or the Creator states that they do not object to the act and dissemination, is therefore not considered a copyright infringement.
However, if the person who covers the song does not heed these provisions, both moral rights and economic rights, and their actions are intended for commercial purposes or to benefit themselves or their group without the permission of the Creator or parties who have rights to the work, then the act of covering the song can be said to have infringed copyright.
Legal Consequences and Dispute Resolution Efforts
To protect the legal interests of copyright holders, it can be done in two ways, namely civilly by requesting compensation, which can be in the form of a request to surrender all or part of the income obtained from the copyright infringement through a civil lawsuit to the Commercial Court (Article 99 Paragraph (1) of the Copyright Law), or criminally, such as that stipulated in Article 113 Paragraph (2) of the Copyright Law with a maximum imprisonment of 3 (three) years and/or a maximum fine of Rp. 500 million or related to Intellectual Property Rights as regulated in Article 25 of the ITE Law.
In addition to litigation efforts that can be taken if a dispute arises between the conflicting parties, another solution that can be done is through alternative dispute resolution outside the court (alternative dispute resolution) such as consultation, negotiation, mediation or conciliation.
However, we are still pessimistic even though there is a legal umbrella that protects artists for their work, but in practice, they still encounter obstacles and there is no common ground, either because of the lack of firmness of the legal substance, the low legal culture of the community, or the structure of law enforcement that is still not effective in resolving disputes.
As an alternative to resolving these issues, and thanks to technological advancements in line with applicable legal rules, YouTube, as one of the largest social media platforms and the biggest contributor to the emergence of "cover musicians," has a feature that can detect songs with similar melodies. If a similarity is suspected, it automatically divides the income or royalties of the cover artist to the original singer. In fact, YouTube often takes firm action by blocking videos or content that are deemed to violate Copyright.
Thus, we can learn together that the existence of these rules and ethical boundaries does not mean limiting content creators in expressing themselves, but is intended to create a healthy and fair creative ecosystem that is a mutual agreement and desire.
*This article represents the opinion the author's personal opinion and does not represent the views of the Literasi Hukum Indonesia editorial team.
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