Software piracy in Asia hurts development: U.S.<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Widespread software piracy in Asia is undermining the computer
\nindustry's efforts to develop better products, an executive of a
\nU.S. company said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"Piracy in Asia is quite common, whether you look at
\nSingapore, Malaysia, Thailand or Taiwan,\" said Eugene Bay,
\nmanaging director for the Southeast Asian operations of U.S.-
\nbased software corporation Borland.<\/p>\n
Bay said software piracy had caused companies to lose billions
\nof dollars that could have been used to improve their products.<\/p>\n
\"A lot of the money that is generated from the sale and the
\nlicensing of software goes back into research and development to
\nmeet the business requirements of customers,\" Bay told reporters.<\/p>\n
\"If nobody buys legal software, where does the money come from
\nto build better software?\"<\/p>\n
Borland is a member of the Business Software Alliance, a U.S.-
\nbased industry anti-counterfeiting group that is cooperating with
\nthe Malaysian government in cracking down on software piracy.<\/p>\n
Malaysian authorities have warned companies to rid their
\ncomputers of unlicensed software before September, when
\nnationwide raids on offices will start.<\/p>\n
The alliance estimates that 70 percent of new software used in
\nMalaysia last year was illegal, up from 66 percent in 2000. The
\ninfringements resulted in losses totaling 359.1 million ringgit
\n($94.5 million) to the software industry.<\/p>\n
The software piracy rate in the Asia-Pacific region rose to 54
\npercent last year, causing losses of about 4.7 billion ringgit
\n($1.2 billion), the group said. Vietnam, China and Indonesia were
\nthe Asian countries with the highest piracy rates.<\/p>\n
Pirated software is commonly used in Malaysia despite strict
\ncopyright laws that allow offenders to be jailed for up to five
\nyears and fined 10,000 ringgit ($2,632) for each infringement.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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