Piracy hurts Asian recovery

Piracy hurts Asian recovery

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Combating software and music piracy is
crucial to recovering economies in Asia, technology experts and
officials at a regional meeting said Wednesday.

From government offices and hospitals to large private
companies, pirated software is ubiquitous in Asia. A 1998 study
by a global audit company found that 84 percent of the software
used and sold in Southeast Asia was illegal.

Officials from 13 Asia-Pacific countries at a Software Policy
Summit in Kuala Lumpur focused two days of talks on "the
debilitating effects of piracy," which has caused governments to
lose millions of dollars in potential taxes and cost the
economies thousands of jobs, a joint statement said.

"Reducing piracy is one of the fastest things Asia can do to
foster full recovery from the economic downturn," Robert
Holleyman, president of U.S.-based Business Software Alliance,
told a news conference at the end of the meeting.