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Not a day in recent months has gone by without SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, making headlines. The divisive American bill aims to steer the Internet away from Web sites that contain or direct users to infringing material, and proponents say it marks America’s last attempt to combat “the theft of US property.”

But the piracy bill poses many concerns for advocates of free speech and online innovation, who argue that entire domains could be shut down under the law because of a single offending Web page hosted on them.

Two weeks ago, Wikipedia’s English site and social news site Reddit, among 7,000 other sites, coordinated a 24-hour service blackout to protest the bill and raise awareness about these concerns.

But what does the world’s latest crusade against online copyright infringement mean to Indonesia, which consistently tops the world rankings for piracy on the Web?

Ari Juliano Gema, an intellectual property rights lawyer at Assegaf Hamzah & Partners and a project leader for Creative Commons Indonesia, is adamant that while piracy must be stopped, SOPA is not the way to go about it.

“I don’t agree with SOPA — it’s too repressive,” Ari said. “Enforcing SOPA would be like burning down a farm to kill a mouse.”

The Indonesian government, he said, has the Information and Electronic Transactions Law to shut down blogs, Internet access or Web sites for alleged crimes, including copyright violations.

Last year, he said, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology planned to block Web sites that were facilitating illegal music downloading.

“The plan didn’t go forward due to criticism,” he said.

The fact that piracy is so rampant here, he said, points to a complex problem.

“First, it shows the public doesn’t understand what copyright means,” Ari said. “It’s the government’s responsibility to educate people about intellectual property rights, particularly regarding copyrights.”

In addition, he said, the government’s past antipiracy efforts have not been effective.

“The president formed a joint team to combat piracy in 2006, but so far there has been no meaningful efforts or results,” he said. “In fact, [the team’s] Web site hasn’t been updated since August 2010.”

Finally, Ari said rampant copyright violations in Indonesia suggests that the price of original material may be too expensive for most people.

“Distribution is also a problem,” he added. “Original copies are not available everywhere in Indonesia.”

Record labels need to deal with that last issue, he said, even if it means changing their business models.

“The music industry itself has undergone significant changes over the past few decades, and technology is one of them” he said. “But while that has affected distribution models, record labels are still relying on physical distribution as their main source of revenue.”

Ari said record labels should focus on making money via artist management, online distribution, merchandise and music concerts.

But not all labels are stuck in their old ways, he said.

“Some labels recently adopted new ways of distribution, such as partnering with telecommunication companies for online distribution or working with chain stores or chain restaurants like on the KFC Music Hit List,” he said.

Artists are also embracing new ways of working, such as by sharing their music freely with Creative Commons licenses.

“With these licenses, artists maintain copyright but allow people to copy and distribute their work as long as they credit the author,” Ari said. “The artists will still get compensation from selling collectible items and from concerts … there are many ways to be economically successful.”

Ultimately, though, if artists want to continue creating, then authorities need to crack down on piracy, he said.

“Copyright is part of the universal declaration of human rights,” Ari said. “Artists, as human beings, need to fulfill their basic needs, and so they deserve compensation for their work.

“They also need to finance the production of future works,” he added. “Piracy prevents them from doing that.”

Ari said he thought it was possible to stop piracy. “But that depends on all of the stakeholders,” he added.

Record labels, he said, have a duty to ensure fair prices for their products, society is obligated to pay copyright holders what they deserve and the government and scholars must campaign for greater respect for artists and copyright owners.

“It’s not just the government’s responsibility; it’s everyone’s responsibility,” he said.

However, Ari conceded that not all instances of duplicating copyrighted work should be called piracy.

“If you make a commercial use of copyrighted material without a license, then yes, that’s an act of piracy,” he said. “If it’s just for personal use, I don’t think we should keep calling it piracy.

“If you want to remix or use something for a commercial purpose, you’d have to negotiate with the record labels. But for personal use of it, there shouldn’t be any problems.”