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Last weekend, Zenin and I went to a friend’s house. We saw a lot of Laras Magazine (Indonesian Architecture Magazine). We were so thrilled that there have been many great houses, hotels; apartments and other projects that were built back home. It is a good indicator that this industry is doing well back home.   

Until of course, I saw the sad face beside me. Yes, it was my husband, Zenin. Apparently, one of his good friends has copied Zenin’s work. I totally have no respect for this guy. First of all, this guy is far more “established” than Zenin (angkatan ’88 bow!!!). Does he not have any conscious and pride to copy my husband’s work? The concept, the detail, you name it, everything!!! Does he not have any moral? Is there any law for such disgrace? Can we sue this person? Sadly, the answer is a big fat NO.

The copyright that I know is designed to protect and claim that the artist’s works are their own creations, emanating from their own minds and that their works must be treated sacred. It supposed to identify the creator and the creation. It supposed to protect individual creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and makers of films. These include painters and other visual artists, architects, illustrators, photographers, writers, screenwriters, set designers, film makers, etc. It supposed to hindrance others to get economical gain from the mind of others. And lastly, as a creative work, it supposed to protect the customer/client to have “one of a kind” work of art.

I guess I am more upset than Zenin.  He told me that though moral rights of copyrights are integral in architecture, but in practice very little is used. Sadly, it’s moral in this area is almost fictional. An architect may only give a slight alteration of his end product, and then it is already considered a different “product”. For example, an architect can copy another architect’s work, but he only change the size of the window by an inch, then, the law perceives it as “a whole different work of art”. Hence, in the eyes of the law, there is no violation. Moreover, in practice there is little litigation by architects over breaches of their moral rights.

It is good to know that Zenin’s work was published in five magazines and books (local and overseas) before this so called “friend” copied. Thus, people can definitely identify the creator behind the creation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.