Thu, 20 Feb 1997

Police face problems in handling software piracy

JAKARTA (JP): Inadequate law and knowledge have hindered legal proceedings against many software pirates in Indonesia which has a reputation as one of the world's worst offenders of property rights, a police officer has said.

National Police production and trade detective department chief Lt. Col. P. Harry Purnomo said yesterday only five cases of software piracy had been legally processed.

"Three of the five cases have been tried and the culprits have been sent to jail," Harry said.

"The five suspects were processed based on public information," he said, adding that they were executives of computer shops in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java.

He said his office would receive today 412 reports on software piracies compiled by the U.S.' Business Software Alliance (BSA).

The Washington-based BSA is a nonprofit body which promotes the growth of the software industry through its international program in more than 60 nations.

The organization's members include major software producers like Adobe, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CNC Software, Lotus Development, Microsoft, Novell, Symantec and Santa Cruz Operation.

BSA, represented in Indonesia by the Rendon Group (PT Tiara Ragam Gempita), said the 412 reports were from the public.

BSA vice president David Sigler said that of the 412 reports, 167 contained information about shops, mainly in Jakarta, selling pirated software.

He said the shops had been investigated and the allegations were all contained in the dossier handed to police.

BSA estimates that in 1995, about 98 percent of computer software used in Indonesia was pirated copies.

BSA ranked Indonesia second to Vietnam with a 99 percent piracy rate. China and Oman (96 percent) were third, Pakistan (92 percent) was fourth and the Philippines (91 percent) was fifth.

Losses from worldwide software piracy were US$13.1 billion in 1995, up 9 percent from 1994's $12.2 billion, BSA said.

It estimated losses from piracy in the Asia-Pacific at $3.9 billion.

For piracy losses in dollar terms Indonesia was seventh with $150.12 million after Japan ($1.64 billion), Korea ($67.28 million), China ($443.93 million), Australia ($198.14 million), Taiwan ($165.46 million) and India ($155.64 million).

Purnomo said Indonesia would introduce heavier sanctions against property rights offenders with the new copyright law planned for April 1.

Under current copyright law, Article 44 of the law on intellectual property rights, offenders can be fined up to Rp 100 million ($41,361) and face a maximum of seven years jail for selling or copying a copyrighted work or giving permission to do so.

The law stipulates anyone illegally broadcasting, displaying, distributing or selling copies of intellectual work faces up to seven years in jail and a Rp 50 million fine.

The government has pledged to crack down on computer software piracy.

Purnomo said the government had spent a great deal of money and stepped up efforts to improve the protection of intellectual property rights.

Purnomo, who recently completed a three-month course on Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in Australia, said Indonesia did not have enough people with a property rights background.

"There are limited number of prosecutors, police and other officers and officials with standard knowledge in computer and intellectual property rights," he said.

BSA has offered Rp 35 million reward to anybody who can report software piracies with legally accepted evidence.

But Purnomo warned that people must be careful in providing information so as not to be charged with slander.

He said people who intentionally bought or used pirated software could be charged with conspiracy. (icn)

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