Pirates nabbed

Date: February 19, 2007
Source: thenews.com.pk


Police have registered criminal cases against the owners of two computer firms and their four salesmen were also arrested here in Clifton for defying the copyright law, by loading pirated software on new computers.

“The installation of unlicensed software CDs onto the hard-disks of personal computers is a crime, no different from theft,” said a Business Software Alliance (BSA) spokesman here today and observed that pirated software is often loaded on new machines in Pakistan “as an incentive for the buyers to purchase the computers from a particular dealer.”

Piracy is having an adverse effect on the growth of country’s IT sector with a revenue loss of about US $48 million, he said in a press statement. Compared with the world software piracy rate of 35% and Asia’s 54% in 2005, the software piracy rate in Pakistan was 86%, he said.

The spokesman said that all the six accused in the latest raid would now face legal action. While the 41 unlicensed CDs and the two computers loaded with illegal software were also confiscated by the police from their possession, on the complaint of BSA, he added.

The police found that the computer hard disks were loaded with many popular computer programmes, including Microsoft XP, MS Office and Norton anti-Virus, besides other software.
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