The Exploitation of Indigenous Communities by Commercial Actors: Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expression

Abstract

The protection of traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expression (TCE) of underprivileged indigenous communities is threatened due to frequent exploitation attempts by commercial actors for economic benefits. The literature highlighting the legal gaps and necessities to support such legal reforms to protect those communities are scarce in the literature, which has been studied in the current research. The current study aims to provide insightful recommendations for policymakers to help protect the legal rights of underprivileged communities scattered in various parts of the world. Indonesian study setting provided a perfect case to achieve the study objectives. Using a qualitative doctrinal legal research design, the secondary data were collected, and content was analyzed using phenomenological and linguistic analysis. The results revealed that the protection of TK and TCE in Indonesia and several underprivileged communities in various countries need serious legal amendments in local legislation considering international laws. Contextually, the Indonesian Copyright Law is inadequate to accommodate the full protection for TCE. Meanwhile, Indonesian laws that regulate traditional knowledge are overlapping and immature to protect national cultural heritage comprehensively. A new regulation is recommended to ensure that all international legal instruments related to traditional knowledge should help the community of traditional knowledge copyrights in Indonesia with affirmative action towards indigenous communities. Policy recommendations and future research directions are suggested to protect Traditional Cultural Expression and Traditional Knowledge of underprivileged communities in general and Indonesia in focus.

Analysis of the Legal Challenges of Enacting Effective Communal Intellectual Property Data Collection System in Indonesia

“…In the practical aspect, limited coordination and collaboration among relevant agencies, such as the government, legal institutions, and industry players, can jeopardize the sustainability of the data system (Kasih, Dharmawan, Putra, Sudiarawan, & Rakhima, 2021). Weak collaboration may impede the exchange of information and coordination in addressing intellectual property violations.…”

Quo Vadis Traditional Cultural Expressions Protection: Threats from Personal Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence

“…There are similar previous studies such as those conducted by: (1) Gema ( 2022 Expression is still vulnerable to the threat of exploitation by commercial actors. Therefore, it is needed to amend the law by considering both national law and international law by ensuring that international legal instruments can help traditional communities in the context of affirmative action for indigenous communities (Kasih et al, 2021) Balinese songket cloth is also often used not only by Balinese people in their traditional activities but can also and is often used at national events. For example, when the President of Indonesia (Mr Joko Widodo) used Balinese songket to attend dinner with the leaders of the G20 countries at a prestigious world event, namely the G20 Summit in November 2022 (Putri, 2022).…”