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Alex Lo

About 100 companies are being investigated by a private software copyright watchdog as the one-month grace period under the newly amended copyright law ends today.

The Business Software Alliance, which had agreed to the grace period, said some cases would be passed to Customs for prosecution if there was sufficient evidence.

The amendments, which came into effect on April 1, make use of pirated software a criminal offence, with a maximum fine of $50,000 for each infringing copy and four years in jail.

'We are looking into the cases we have on hand and, depending on the level of evidence and information, we will then decide which cases to forward to Customs,' vice-president of the alliance, Ringo Wong Chee-kao, said.

Mr Wong declined to reveal details about the cases being investigated, saying only they involved both small and large companies.

The powerful alliance, which comprises some of the biggest computer brands in the world - including Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Apple - carries out investigations and passes on evidence.

Customs declined to say how many investigations, if any, had been launched or the number of reports it had received since April 1.

Hong Kong Chamber of Small and Medium Business president Felix Chan Kwok-wai said Customs was under pressure to prosecute as a warning to others.

He estimated the chamber's 1,000 members had invested about $20 million in licensed software in April alone. 'This is an extra financial burden for small businesses which are barely recovering from the effects of the Asian financial meltdown,' he said. 'But from Customs and the alliance's point of view, a few have to be punished to deter others.'

Mr Chan said some software dealers had taken advantage of the new law to raise prices, even though suppliers had instructed licensed dealers not to do so.

The Intellectual Property Department estimates that one in two pieces of software used in business is pirated.



100 companies investigated as copyright grace period ends