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).