Taxing Foreign Films

Recently I sat next to a young Indonesian Filmmaker at a dinner party who said the reason that the Indonesian film industry was still in disarray despite a plenitude of talent in this country is because of the focus on ghouls, ghosts, and gore with an extra fillip of horror.

Taxing foreign films with the resultant decrease in distribution will do nothing to fix the problem. The Jakarta Film Festival, among many others, has done a great job of screening films like Captain Abu Raid (Jordon), Water (India), and Waiting for Superman (US), which whet the appetites of local film-goers and raised the bar for work produced here.

One of the delightful creature comforts over my last 15 years of residency in this country has been to go to the excellent cinemas at reasonable prices and see global films, allowing us to be part of the universal cultural debate.

I really hate to think that this will come to an end because of taxation policy. I wonder what the impact will be on intellectual property rights when audiences begin to hunger for foreign films and resort to piracy to fill the need. (Lucy S. Mize, The Jakarta Post Tuesday, February 22, 2011)

Tesis                            : Taxing foreign films with the resultant decrease in distribution will do nothing to fix the problem.

1^st argument               : One of the delightful creature comforts over my last 15 years of residency in this country has been to go to the excellent cinemas at reasonable prices and see global films, allowing us to be part of the universal cultural debate.

2^nd argument              : I really hate to think that this will come to an end because of taxation policy.

Recommendation      : I wonder what the impact will be on intellectual property rights when audiences begin to hunger for foreign films and resort to piracy to fill the need.