Microsoft wins battle against software piracy

Microsoft wins battle against software piracy

JAKARTA (JP): U.S. giant software company Microsoft Corp. won
on Monday a legal battle against software piracy by a local
computer dealer, who was ordered by the court to compensate the
plaintiff US$4.4 million.

The West Jakarta District Court finally delivered its much-
awaited judgment on Monday after postponing the trial three
times.

Reading the verdict in a 45-minute hearing, presiding judge M.
Saleh said that computer dealer PT Kusumo Megah Jaya Sakti had
been found guilty of violating copyright law.

Saleh looked a little confused when reading the law since the
verdict did not fully state the number and year of the law's
issuance. What he meant was Article 1, paragraph 5 of Law No.
6/1982.

After being unable to double-check it with fellow judge
Soepeno, he again told the hearing, "The accused violated Article
1, paragraph 5 Law No. 6 ..., hmmm ... the year will be inserted
later."

"The accused has been found guilty of installing Microsoft
software in computers sold to consumers, outside the terms of the
licensing agreement," Saleh told the hearing.

The panel of judges ordered the dealer to pay Microsoft $4.4
million in compensation and place a full-page apology in Kompas
and Bisnis Indonesia newspapers and Info Komputer magazine for
seven consecutive days.

Lawyers of both Microsoft and PT Kusumo gave no response when
judge Saleh asked whether they had any objections to the ruling.

However, apparently unhappy with the verdict, the dealer's
lawyer, Hermawi Taslim, told The Jakarta Post outside the court
room that he would appeal to the high court.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's lawyer Ahmad Djosan said that he was
happy with the ruling, "But I have to consult with my client
first about whether or not to accept it."

This was the first verdict delivered by the court here.
Besides this lawsuit, Microsoft has also sued four other local
companies for allegedly installing pirated Windows '98, Windows
97 and Microsoft Office 2000 software in computers they sold to
the public.

Microsoft found out about the software piracy by PT Kusumo
when one of its staff bought a computer from the dealer's shop,
Professional Computer (Procom), in Mangga Dua shopping mall in
West Jakarta on Jan. 3.

The shop attendant showed that the computer had been equipped
with Windows 1998 and Microsoft Office 2000 and other software,
although the Microsoft staff member had not asked the attendant
to install them.

On Jan. 16, Agus Budiman from Dell Consultants, hired by
Microsoft to examine the computer, found that the dealer had no
license or other documents from Microsoft.

Microsoft actually demanded that PT Kusumo pay $8.87 million
based on the daily estimated computer sales of about ten items in
the store, which had been established for over four years. It
also demanded that the dealer advertise an apology in ten local
newspapers here.

Upset, Taslim said that the verdict "doesn't make sense at
all," claiming that his client had only established his business
about two years ago.

"Why should the company have to wait for more than 10 days
after buying the computer on Jan. 3?" Taslim argued, adding that
anyone without computer expertise could install software easily.

"Nobody can prove who was the one that actually installed it,"
he said. (04)