Manufacturers, BPOs are top software pirates

MANILA, Philippines – The local manufacturing and outsourcing sectors are the biggest software pirates in the country, due mainly to the large number of computers that they use in their operations.

According to Business Software Alliance consultant for the Philippines Bienvenido Marquez III, the sheer number of terminals that these two industries use had made them the top contributors to the 69-percent software piracy rate that the country registered in 2008.

“A lot of manufacturing firms have been considered for [Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team] action. We also have some [violators] from the outsourcing industry. We actually have a lot of issues with the outsourcing industry in terms of their use of unlicensed software because they use a lot of terminals,” he explained.

But this was not to say that these were the only two industries that were guilty of software piracy in the country, said BSA anti-piracy senior director for Asia-Pacific Tarun Sawney.

“Piracy is really spread widely across industries,” he said.

Based on BSA’s Global Software Piracy Study, released in May and conducted by information technology research firm IDC, personal computer software piracy in the country was pegged at 69 percent in 2008, the same level it was in 2007.

However, piracy-related losses increased to $202 million in 2008, from $147 million the year before.

To remedy this, Marquez urged companies to “treat software as an asset that helps companies become more competitive. So why scrimp?”

“Software piracy is a menace that softly kills our software industry and hurts our economy. We can’t afford to lose millions more through theft of intellectual property,” he said. “We hope companies will practice proper business ethics and use licensed software.”

BSA is currently pushing for the issuance of “special rules” for IP cases to help curb piracy in the country.

“The court system in the Philippines is one issue that we need to look at. We’re now in talks with [the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and the Supreme Court]. They are in the process of coming up with special rules for IP cases,” Marquez said.

“We hope these will be passed late this year or early next year. This is not only for software, but also for other industries, such as movies, music, pharmaceutical and apparel. These rules aim to address the delaying tactics of defense lawyers when it comes to IP cases,” he further said. –Abigail L. Ho, Philippine Daily Inquirer