RP’s software piracy down to 71%; BSA sees further decline

 

     Officials of the BSA who recently met with Intellectual Property Office Director General Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said that the decline in software piracy has been caused by the joint intense raid and public awareness campaign of the government and computer software owners.

     Tarun Sawney, BSA’s director of anti-piracy for Asia, said that they expect the figure to further go down as a result of the cooperation, which on the part of the government, is a demonstration of its commitment to curb the use of unlicensed software.

 

     During the meeting, Sawney thanked Cristobal over the efforts of the Arroyo administration in curbing the illegal use of computer software.

 

     The BSA anti-piracy director told Cristobal that they have been satisfied with the results of the continuing raids of IP inter-agencies, such as the Optical Media Board, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.

          

      He said that since the crackdown of the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy team, of which the government’s law enforcement agencies are members, began more than two months ago, more than P19 million worth of software have been seized.

  

      But still, the BSA asked the continued support of the IPO in the ongoing campaign. Particularly, it asked the IPO and its mother agency, Department of Trade and Industry, to intervene in the same problem that it is experiencing with call center players and other industry associations.

 

      Sawney said that although a memorandum of agreement has been signed between the BSA and the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) last year, still, some of latter’s members have not complied with the agreement.

  

     He also reiterated BSA’s willingness to find suitable measures of cooperation to promote IPR compliance among legitimate businesses.

 

      The agreement calls for the call center members to legalize the software that they are using.