Software piracy to remain rampant, says official

JAKARTA (JP): Software piracy in Indonesia will remain rampant given the lack of respect for other people's intellectual works, says a senior official.

Bambang Kesowo, chairman of Team Kepress 34 which was established by the government to protect property rights throughout the country, said most people ignore intellectual property rights simply due to a lack of understanding.

"A lot of people are still ignorant about intellectual property rights because they do really not understand about the rights and copyrights," Bambang, also deputy cabinet state secretary, said at a news conference held by Business Software Alliance (BSA).

He said intellectual property rights were not taught in the Indonesian education system, even in higher education.

Bambang said law enforcement to fight piracy would, therefore, never succeed if people were not aware of property rights.

He said that the government had organized courses on intellectual property rights with the purpose of spreading knowledge.

He added that in the long term, courses would be given to judges, prosecutors, police and customs officers.

Bambang presented yesterday Original Software Used Here certificates to representatives of one government agency and two private companies on behalf of BSA yesterday.

The government agency, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), is the first government body to receive a certificate from BSA.

Certificates were also awarded to Lippo Life and PT Tripatra Engineering in recognition of their commitment and strong internal policies to only use legal software.

The BSA and the Indonesian Computer Software Association expressed concern over the rampant software piracy in Indonesia.

International Planning and Research Corp estimates software piracy in Indonesia reaches 97 percent, equating a financial loss to the software industry of US$197.3 million in 1996, making software piracy in Indonesia the second highest in the world after Vietnam.

The BSA also reported that its hotline, which has been in operation since August last year, has logged over 500 reports, which BSA has investigated.

The majority of these reports identified many publicly listed companies, including major conglomerates, who blatantly use illegal software.

BSA has opened a branch here to combat piracy. It also opened an Indonesian language homepage on the Internet early this year where people can find out about original software. (08)