Police face problems in handling software piracy
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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