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)