The Safe Harbor Mechanism in the Copyright Bill

The government is currently preparing a Revision of Draft Bill on Copyrights (“Copyrights Draft Bill”) to address the rampant piracy on digital platforms. One of the provisions in the Draft Bill concerns the application of a safe harbor mechanism to address the circulation of pirated products and content on marketplaces and other digital platforms.

Sabar Tua Tampubolon, Deputy Secretary for Digital Creativity and Technology at the Ministry of Creative Economy, explained that the safe harbor mechanism will strengthen the responsibility of digital platforms in responding to reports of copyright infringement. 

“This safe harbor provision provides the flexibility to request takedowns by reporting to the platform. The platform has an obligation to immediately follow up on our complaints, including taking down infringing content,” he said. 

According to him, requests for content removal must be submitted by parties directly associated with the infringed work, whether as creators or rights holders. This mechanism is expected to provide more effective protection for economic rights holders and creators in the digital space. Through this scheme, platforms no longer merely act as intermediaries but actively help safeguard the integrity of works circulating on their services.