Education campaign aims to stop software piracy
The Intellectual Property Department, the Customs and Excise Department and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) plan to mount a new series of education campaigns to stamp out the use of pirated software by firms in Hong Kong.
This was the message from government officials at the relaunch last week of the Software Asset Management (SAM) seminars, a BSA-led initiative which teaches businesses how to gain the full value of their software and reduce the risk of using unlicensed software.
William Chow Oi-tung, assistant commissioner for intelligence and investigation at the Customs and Excise Department, described SAM as complementary to the agency's enforcement of Hong Kong's Copyright Ordinance.
'Using unlicensed software is a criminal offence and companies that break the law put their business at risk,' he said.
'That is why we will push for more education programmes over the next few months to increase public awareness regarding the importance of intellectual property rights.'
He said the software piracy situation in Hong Kong had improved compared with five years ago, but there remained plenty of work ahead to ensure compliance by companies large and small.
More than half the software installed on computers in Hong Kong is pirated, according to a global survey released in April by research firm International Data Corp (IDC).
IDC said software piracy in the city dropped to 53 per cent in 2001 from 64 per cent in 1996. Software accounted for about 13 per cent of the total Hong Kong information technology market, which was worth US$2.6 billion last year.
The IDC study estimated that a 10-point drop in local software piracy - to 44 per cent from 54 per cent - by 2006 could result in 1.1 million new high-technology jobs, US$15 billion in tax revenue, US$170 billion in gross domestic product growth and US$120 billion in revenue to local industries.
'Good software asset management practices are a sign of strong corporate governance and responsible management,' said Stephen Selby, director of the Intellectual Property Department. 'We need to put all our efforts into educating Hong Kong companies about the value and potential of their software tools.'
The revamped SAM campaign, which features an action figure as a symbol, is to start with a seminar for small and medium-size enterprises on December 3.
BSA representative Tony Chow, who is Greater China legal counsel for software firm Autodesk, said the upcoming SAM seminars were aimed at helping organisations 'achieve the productivity and peace of mind that comes with using only genuine, fully licensed software'.
He hoped that education initiatives undertaken in Hong Kong by the BSA could be widely adopted in the mainland and other Asian markets where software piracy remained a problem.
