Business Software Alliance to create awareness:

Focuses on perils of software piracy

Business Software Alliance (BSA) - the voice of the world’s commercial software industry has been actively involved in creating awareness on intellectual property rights (IPR) and software piracy in Sri Lanka.

The main objective of BSA Sri Lanka is to create an environment where intellectual property rights are respected, valued and protected in order to encourage local software entrepreneurs to develop innovative products that make businesses operate more efficiently and build an environment in which investors can place trust.

Growing the IT industry within Sri Lanka requires effective and reliable IP protection, if the growth eagerly anticipated by many is to become a reality. BSA SL aims to realize these objectives through strong partnerships with the Government, the enforcement sector and the corporate sector.

BSA members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and its programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade and e-commerce.

“One of the key issues that needs to be addressed in the protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the software industry is corporate end-user software piracy, which occurs when a company utilizes unlicensed software or does not acquire sufficient licenses (under-licensing) and so installs more copies than it is entitled to under the Software License Agreement” Consultant Sri Lanka Committee, BSA, Shalini Ratwatte said.

“This type of software piracy is the “main culprit” amongst the other types in which software piracy takes place”she added.

The Intellectual Property Act of 2003 is very comprehensive and the violation of the Act is a crime. As per The Computer Crimes Act - which was brought into operation recently - new offences have been created, having the effect of enhancing the penalties for those violating Intellectual Property in Software.

These laws are further supported by the new Companies Act of 2007 wherein Directors of a company are entrusted with a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company in keeping with the articles of the company and the laws of the country.

Enforcement measures have further been strengthened by the establishment of the Commercial High Court, which has the jurisdiction to hear and determine intellectual property infringement cases.

“Like with burglary or any other crime, piracy involves large sums of money with very well organized networks behind it. Software piracy is not a victimless crime and has many different faces. The law must be adhered to - just like any other crime and the Police will use enforcement measures on a regular basis to tackle this problem.”

Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Director, Wijaya Amarasinghe said. Corporate end user raids commenced against companies using unlicensed software in their businesses early last year. For example, it was reported to the Police that a large multinational company was suspected of using pirated and unlicensed software.

Upon the inspection and identification of suspected pirated software, it was evident that seventy of their computers were installed with suspected pirated business software valued at Rupees seven million.

Police seized twenty computers for further inspection and analysis.

Amongst its activities in 2009, BSA in cooperation with the Judges Institute, Sri Lanka Customs and the Attorney General’s Department in partnership with the National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO), the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), The US Embassy in Sri Lanka and the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka (AMCHAM), organized a series of successful capacity building programs for Magistrates of the Western and Southern Provinces, Customs officers and law officers of the State in an effort to provide sustainable awareness and education on Intellectual Property Law to the enforcement sector.