Govt pressured to fight harder

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation

In the next four years, Thailand's economy could grow an extra Bt30 billion, the government could earn Bt1.65 billion more in tax revenue, and 2,100 new jobs could be created if software piracy was reduced by 10 per cent.

So says the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a leading voice in the world software-development industry. Chairman Hwee Chong Ng yesterday said software piracy remained a serious criminal activity that was gradually harming Thailand's entire economy. He said illegal software destroyed not only creativity, but also employment opportunities, tax revenue and the income of individual companies.

He urged the Thai government to crack down on piracy at all levels, from production to use, as well as improve awareness of legitimate software.

"We [software enterprises] see that the government has an ambition to tackle intellectual-property (IP) rights violations, but software piracy has remained unchanged over the past four years at 80 per cent of total intellectual-property violations, and this has created tremendous losses for the country and for business," Ng said.

While the government is urged to raise awareness of the issue, it must also stringently enforce intellectual property laws, in order to show it is serious about suppressing IP violations, he said.

Ng said although legitimate software cost more at the outset, it generated higher benefits for businesses than illegal programs, which carried risks of loss. For instance, legitimate progams are constantly upgraded and updated for buyers, while users of illegal software risk being caught and are unprotected against virus attacks.

Ng suggested software enterprises offer more competitive prices for their products, in order to narrow the gap between legitimate and illegal software. A wide gap between the two prices makes it difficult to combat piracy.

"The Thai government and relevant agencies like the police and the Intellectual Property Department must be tough and uncompromising in cracking down on violations," Ng said, adding that Thailand had effective laws to deal with the crime, but they needed to be stringently enforced.