Software piracy to remain rampant, says official

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)