Indonesia Drops Copyright Recording Fees to Rp0 for All 19 Work Types

By Ozan Attas

Photo: simisi1 / Pixabay

Indonesia is about to make copyright recording free for every category of protected work. On 26 October 2026, Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas announced that all 19 copyright recording services at the Ministry of Law will be charged at Rp0. Until now, only songs and music enjoyed a zero tariff.

What was announced

The minister said the change follows a letter from the Minister of Finance, No. S-360/MK/AG/2026 dated 21 October 2026, approving the ministry's proposal to set the 19 copyright tariffs to zero. The categories track the list of protected works in Article 40(1) of Law No. 28 of 2014 on Copyright. According to the list published by detikcom, they run from books and other written works, lectures and teaching aids, through songs, drama, fine art, applied art, architecture, maps, batik, photographs, portraits and cinematographic works, to translations and adaptations, compilations, video games and computer programs.

ANTARA reported that the zero tariff will apply permanently from November, once a ministerial regulation is issued. The minister indicated that the regulation would follow within about a week of the announcement. Until it is in force, the fee page on the DJKI website still lists the existing tariffs, so applicants should check the page before filing.

The same announcement also covered a zero fee for requests to block pirate websites, a change we cover separately.

The money behind the decision

The ministry was open about the cost. Copyright non-tax revenue (PNBP) reached Rp45.201 billion in 2025 and Rp26.233 billion in 2026 up to the day of the announcement, according to the figures the minister read out. The plan is to make up the shortfall from patents, which he described as the largest source of PNBP within DJKI, by pushing patent licensing. DJKI is also preparing a patent business forum in early November; its Patent Financing Hub page lists the event for 3 to 5 November at JICC, Jakarta.

Why it matters

Recording is not what creates copyright in Indonesia. Protection arises automatically once a work is expressed in a tangible form. A recording certificate is evidence, not the right itself. That is exactly why the fee mattered: for a freelance illustrator, a small batik workshop or a student developer, paying for evidence of a right they already hold was easy to skip.

DJKI Director General Hermansyah Siregar told ANTARA that around 80,000 music creators have recorded their works and that uptake is still low. Removing the fee across all categories tests a simple theory: that cost, not awareness, was the main barrier.

Three practical effects stand out:

• Evidence in disputes. A recording gives a creator a dated, official document to show the Commercial Court or the police when ownership is contested. More recordings should mean fewer arguments about who created what and when.
• Licensing and financing. Lenders, publishers and platforms prefer rights they can verify. Indonesia has been building a framework for using IP as collateral, and a free, searchable record helps that story.
• Software and games. Computer programs and video games are on the list. For start-ups, a free recording is a cheap first step before a licensing deal or an investment round.

What to watch

A free filing is not a free pass. A recording does not prove originality, and DJKI does not examine whether a work infringes someone else's. Disputes over recorded works still end up before the Commercial Court, which can cancel a recording that should not have been made. A surge of zero-cost filings could also bring more duplicate or opportunistic records, and the quality of the database will depend on how DJKI handles that.

We are not aware of an Indonesian court decision addressing whether a jump in cheap recordings changes how much weight judges give a recording certificate. That question may come up sooner than expected.

For now, creators who had been waiting should check whether the ministerial regulation is in force before filing, and keep their working files, drafts and dates. Those remain the best evidence of authorship, with or without a certificate.

Sources

• ANTARA, "Pemerintah gratiskan 19 layanan pencatatan hak cipta" (26 Oct 2026)
• ANTARA, "DJKI persilakan kreator manfaatkan tarif Rp0 layanan hak cipta" (26 Oct 2026)
• detikNews, "Pemerintah Gratiskan Pendaftaran 19 Jenis Hak Cipta, Ini Daftarnya" (26 Oct 2026)
• DJKI, "Biaya Hak Cipta" (fee page, checked 27 Oct 2026)