No 2002 pardon for Australian software pirates - News - Security

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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No 2002 pardon for Australian software pirates

By Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia News
January 07, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/No-2002-pardon-for-Australian-software-pirates/0,130061744,120262732,00.htm

Australia's software piracy watchdog is unlikely to repeat 2001's two-month amnesty for businesses using illegally copied software this year, saying its "generosity" will probably be bestowed on a bi-annual basis in future.

The Business Software Association of Australia (BSAA) cited costs, and the 'generosity factor' over its decision not to offer another limited truce for those violating software licence and copyright restrictions in 2002.

"From our point of view it's a generous thing to do," BSAA chairman Jim Macnamara told ZDNet Australia.

BSAA claims that last year's 60-day truce cost a "couple of hundred thousand dollars", with over 1000 businesses coming forward to legitimise illegal software use -- each requiring advice and management assistance.

-It took us a fair bit of trouble to assist them," Macnamara said.

Furthermore BSAA members, including Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Macromedia, Micrografx, Microsoft and Symantec, have to waive their rights under the Copyright Act for two months, which leaves "only 10 months a year where we're doing anything else," Macnamara added. Whilst truces of this kind come under the BSAA umbrella of education, they go hand-in-hand with enforcement action such as litigation, Macnamara explained.

"The thinking, at this stage, is that we might do it every two years," he said.

Although 2001 wasn't the first year the BSAA offered an amnesty in its campaign to stop software piracy, a previous one was on a much smaller scale offering a month-long truce period to lure businesses into legitimising their software use.

In comparison the 2001 truce was a "very big undertaking" and widely promoted on radio and in newspaper advertising, according to Macnamara.

"We think it was very successful," he said of the last truce, saying BSAA received something like 10,000 phone calls during the 60-day period, leading the group to believe that a number of businesses cleaned up their acts without officially registering for the truce.

Although BSAA has no definite plans to follow up with another amnesty this year, it will review the need for another truce if driven by market demand.