Indonesia e-Commerce – Intellectual Property

Based on Indonesian laws and regulations, a website shall be regarded as an intellectual property of the system provider that has gathered the electronic information and documents to establish the website. In theory, a website owner has no intellectual property rights over the content displayed by another provider. If one intends to insert a link to access a third party's website, then permission from the operator of such website is advisable even if the content of such a third party's website does not contain materials that may violate the applicable laws and regulations.

Using Third-Party Content

In practice, many website owners use content owned by other website owners without any permission. As long as the relevant content is used for lawful purposes, the potential consequence would only be civil in nature. However, if the content has indications of, for example, gambling activities, then it could be subject to criminal sanctions.

Links to Third-Party Websites

If links to third-party websites are displayed, then the relevant owner of the website would automatically be liable for the content of such third-party website. The owner of the website will not be liable if there is an agreement among the website owners that contains a provision that the original website owner shall be liable for any transmission of the content used on its website.

Video Content

Video content accessible through a website is regulated under the same regime as other forms of electronic information or document, since the definition of electronic information or document in Law No. 11 of 2008 as amended by Law No. 19 of 2016 on Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE Law) is very broad. As such, there is no special treatment or exemption for video content that is available online and publicly accessible.

Reproduced with permission of Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Lexology Getting the Deal Through - e-Commerce 2020 (Published: August 2019). 

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