Software piracy in Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Computer software piracy has reached an epidemic proportion in Indonesia, in which as much as 99 percent of personal computer (PC) users exploit the software illegally.

An official of the Lotus Development Corporation, David Wee, said in a press conference here on Thursday that software piracy in Asia had costed international software companies US$5 billion.

Wee said that the companies' loss in Indonesia must be more than $1 billion due to the widely spread use of PCs here.

He added that there are around 1.5 million PCs in Indonesia, in which each PC needs around $1,000 for software.

Referring to the software piracy rate by the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance, he said that only 99 percent of 1.5 million PC users in Indonesia bought their expensive software legally.

In a bid to fight piracy, he said, Lotus Development Corporation, which was established in 1982 in the United States, had decided to sell its software at lower prices in Indonesia.

"To make it more affordable for people to buy legal software," he said, adding that a special Window software package which include the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet and the Ami Pro word processor will be sold at $360, whereas both software normally retail for $495 each.(09)