|
Software piracy rates in the Philippines declined to
69 percent in 2007 from 71 percent in 2006, according to the
Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Despite this, BSA Asia Pacific
vice president and regional director Jeffrey Hardee said that losses
by its member companies in the Philippines from software piracy
increased to $147 million in 2007 from $119 million in 2006.
Hardee credited the Pilipinas
Anti-Piracy Team for the decreased piracy rates and said, “we at
the BSA are happy to see this reduction.”
The anti-piracy team is composed
of the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police
and Optical Media Board, which conducted raids on business
establishments suspected to be using and selling illegally copied
software.
Hardee attributed the paradox of
decreased piracy rates but heightened losses by BSA members to the
stronger peso. That factor, along with the expanded market for
personal computers and software, brought about the losses.
Hardee said the proliferation of
unbranded computers that are locally assembled is one of the causes
of piracy in the country. Such computers, which comprise 50 percent
of all personal computers in the Philippines, usually use pirated
software.
“This is a challenge the BSA
and the Philippines will have to address,” Hardee said.
He said the BSA is asking the
Philippine Congress to pass bills implementing World Intellectual
Property Office treaties to which the country is a signatory.” We
hope these [bills] will be passed this year,” he said.
Documents furnished by BSA showed
Bangladesh had the highest piracy rates in Asia at 92 percent,
followed by Sri Lanka at 90 percent and Vietnam at 85 percent. The
Philippines was not in the list of countries in the world with the
highest piracy rates, which included the three Asia-Pacific
countries.
The Philippines’ piracy rate
tied India’s at 69 percent. India is today regarded as the
Philippines primary competitor for outsourced e-services.
--Ike Suarez
|
