Indonesia is once again debating a proposal that would require plain packaging for vape products. The stated objective is familiar: reduce the attractiveness of nicotine products, particularly among young people, by removing logos, colors, and other branding elements from packaging. If a product is considered dangerous enough to lose its brand identity, why is it still legal to sell in the first place?

Ambition to expand tax collection from the digital economy is understandable. As more Indonesians pay for streaming subscriptions, cloud services, software licenses, AI platforms, and online games from overseas providers, the government has a legitimate interest in ensuring that value-added tax (VAT) is collected fairly and efficiently.

The recent controversy surrounding the online sale advertisement of Pulau Katang in the Riau Islands illustrates how rapidly that shift is happening. A Threads account openly offered the 73-hectare island for Rp65 billion, promoting it as suitable for a “private island,” luxury resort, and exclusive tourism development with easy access to Singapore.

The government, through the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI), is studying the creation of a collective management organization to collect royalties from AI companies that use copyrighted materials to train their models. The proposal would function similarly to the music royalty system, where businesses pay a central institution that later distributes payments to creators.