Indonesia is preparing a rewrite of its copyright law that would make it the first country in Southeast Asia to write artificial intelligence into the statute.
A draft of the bill would ban the use of AI to imitate a creator’s “distinctive style” and would require anyone using AI to make content to disclose it, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters.
It would also make the use of copyrighted works to train AI models subject to fair-use limits or licensing agreements, the news agency reported.
Platforms that fail to comply could have their local business permits revoked, Reuters reported on Friday (July 17). The sanction would land on Google and other US tech companies operating in the country.
The overhaul would replace Indonesia‘s current copyright statute, Law No. 28 of 2014, and would cover content ranging from video games and photography to journalism and film.
Under the draft, AI-assisted works would qualify for copyright protection only if they clear a human-involvement test, while works generated entirely by machines would be excluded, per Reuters.
Exactly how much human input is required is not defined in the draft – a gap that will shape which AI-assisted works ultimately win protection, according to the Reuters report.
It would also require platforms to pay compensation for aggregating, republishing, or link-previewing news content – and for using it to train AI – with the money routed through state-supervised collective management organizations to rightsholders.
The rewrite’s chief government backer is Hermansyah Siregar, who leads Indonesia‘s Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) and confirmed the draft’s authenticity to Reuters.
At a public consultation on the draft on May 4, the DJKI said the overhaul would recognize AI-based works while still requiring human intellectual contribution, and would tighten royalty governance.
“The development of generative AI has disrupted the copyright framework,” Siregar said. “If unregulated, it could kill human creation.”
Google has emerged as the most vocal critic of the plan, warning in an earlier statement that the overhaul could choke the growth of Indonesia‘s digital economy.
“Rigid, overbroad mandates, however, would harm local creators, slow innovation, and leave Indonesia as an international outlier, ultimately discouraging the investment needed to drive its digital future,” the company said, adding that it would keep engaging with the government.
“Rigid, overbroad mandates, however, would harm local creators, slow innovation, and leave Indonesia as an international outlier, ultimately discouraging the investment needed to drive its digital future.”
Ari Juliano Gema, an IP and entertainment lawyer, told Reuters the bill could unsettle tech companies because it appears to conflate commercial uses of AI with its use for research.
For the music business, the ban on AI mimicking a creator’s “distinctive style” lands on one of the industry’s most contested fronts: voice and style cloning.
The technology has moved quickly, with Suno in March rolling out a voice-capture tool and “custom models” that tune its generator to a user’s own vocal identity and style.
Suno and rival Udio were sued by the RIAA in 2024 over what the trade body called “mass infringement,” and Udio has since signed licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for a licensed AI music platform.
Indonesia is one of Southeast Asia‘s largest music markets, part of a region for which the IFPI launched official charts across six markets in early 2025.
The government has also paired the rewrite with a piracy crackdown in Indonesia.
The DJKI said it blocked 1,004 pirate sites between January 2025 and May 2026, led by pirate film and TV services, alongside digital books and broadcasting-rights infringements.
The agency has framed the overhaul as a way to protect creators’ livelihoods and to strengthen royalty governance through the LMKN, Indonesia‘s national collective management body.
Indonesia‘s licensing-and-compensation model sits at odds with its neighbor Singapore, whose 2021 Copyright Act lets companies copy protected works to train AI, including for commercial use.
Japan has taken a similarly permissive stance on training, while the European Union‘s AI Act requires content to be labeled where AI has generated or altered it, according to Reuters.
Copyright statutes in the US and Singapore do not mention AI directly, but both countries’ copyright offices have said protection requires human authorship, Reuters reported.
Siregar has cast the effort as part of a global reckoning, citing the copyright lawsuit brought against tech companies by The New York Times over the use of material to train AI systems.
The draft is not final and the Indonesian government is still gathering input, according to Reuters, with no firm timeline for when the bill might pass.Music Business Worldwide
