Jakarta. Indonesia has ratified the Beijing Treaty, a multilateral agreement that regulates the intellectual property rights of audiovisual artists, including the reproduction, distribution and rental of their work.

The Beijing Treaty protects the economic and moral rights of the artists over their work and operates under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The treaty should lead to more income for actors, singers, musicians and dancers, as well as protect their work from digital piracy.

It will ensure they get paid properly when their films or TV series, for example, are made available outside their own countries.

The treaty is also expected to improve working conditions for the artists in their own countries.

"Technology allows audiovisual work to be enjoyed instantly by audience everywhere. Protecting the rights of the artists is a crucial step in developing our creative economy," Hasan Kleib, the Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Indonesia is the thirtieth country to ratify the Beijing Treaty, fulfilling the minimum requirement for it to come into force in April.

Other countries that have ratified it include China, Japan, Russia, Cambodia and North Korea.

However, the United States and the European Union – home to the world's biggest entertainment stars – have not ratified the treaty, even though American actress Meryl Streep and Spanish actors Javier Bardem and Antonio Banderas have worked tirelessly to promote it. 

Marrakech Treaty

Indonesia has also ratified the Marrakech Treaty, which regulates the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or other visual impairments, Ambassador Hasan said.

The treaty allows ratifying countries to create copyright limitations on the production, reproduction and distribution of books for the visually impaired.

The Marrakech Treaty has been in force since June 2016.

According to data from the Health Ministry, around 1.5 percent of the Indonesian population, or around 3.7 million people roughly, are visually impaired.  

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