Cash Rewards given to finger illegal software

Cheques worth Bt45,000, Bt77,000 and Bt108,000 were written when phone calls to the BSA resulted in successful police enforcement action against companies using pirated or unlicensed software.

In these three cases, the illegal software found included commonly available business software used for photo-editing, computer-aided design, animation, anti-virus protection, operating systems, word processing and translation. All the software copyrights belonged to members of the BSA, including large companies like Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, Symantec and Thai Software Enterprise.

Tarun Sawney, the BSA's director for anti-piracy in Asia, said: "The BSA would like to congratulate these people for being forthright and having the integrity to come forward to report the suspected use of pirated or unlicensed software in the companies."

Police Colonel Sarayuth Pooltanya, deputy commander of the Economic and Technical Crimes Suppression Division, said: "The identity of the callers to the BSA is protected and anonymous. More people should follow this example by reporting companies they suspect are using pirated or unlicensed software. By doing so, they are doing the right thing and helping the police eliminate software piracy in the workplace."

Over the last few months, the BSA has warned company directors and senior management to respect the intellectual property rights of software owners by using only original and licensed software.

Thailand's Copyright Act makes it a criminal offence to use unlicensed software in a business. A company found guilty of using pirated or unlicensed software is subject to a fine of Bt100,000 to Bt800,000, or a jail term of six months to four years, or both.

People should call the BSA on 1800 291 005 (toll-free) or (02) 711 6193, or log on to www.bsa.org to report the use of pirated or unlicensed software in their organisations. The identity of callers is kept confidential.