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Country’s Record Still Bad On Fighting Software Piracy
Shirley Christie | May 03, 2011

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Most of the computer software installed in Indonesia last year was pirated and caused $886 million in losses, according to an industry report.

The International Data Corporation, a global research firm, and the Business Software Alliance released a report last week that showed 86 percent of software installed on personal computers in the country last year was pirated.

“The effects of this stealing impacted the software-making industry and crushed the revenue of local distributors and service providers that would have provided job opportunities and created income for the country,” the report said.

The rate of piracy was an increase from 84 percent in 2007, when the BSA performed a similar survey.

Kartini Nurdin, the chair of the Indonesian Reproduction Foundation (YRCI), was part of a forum discussion between intellectual property experts, the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights (HKI) and the media on April 26. She said creative industries were a boon to the nation and that violating intellectual property would strangle the creative process and hurt the economy.

“Buying pirated products means customers can’t be sure they’re getting a complete product,” Kartini said on Tuesday.

She also said most pirated software had defects, limiting customers’ ability to get the most out of the product.

Tutang, who represented the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) at the forum, said relying on pirated software and platforms was risky, particularly for confidential activities such as financial transactions.

“Using genuine software will not only help protect its maker’s intellectual property, but it will also give guarantee of quality to its users in terms of security, performance, reliability and comfort,” he said.

“Consumers have to realize the threats of viruses, malware, data loss, stolen identity and even hardware malfunctions.”

The report, called “The Economic Benefits of Reducing Software Piracy,” claimed that reducing the piracy rate of computer software by 10 percent within four years would generate economic activity worth $2.4 billion, as well as 1,884 new information technology-related jobs and $124 million in additional tax income.

If Indonesia managed to reduce the piracy rate within two years, it continued, the benefits would increase to a $3.1 billion bump in the gross domestic product and $162 million in additional tax income.

Sutanto Hartono, president director of Microsoft Indonesia, said the nation was showing good progress.

“There are two segments of users, corporate and consumer. In the corporate segment, the trend is showing progress as companies now are more aware of using genuine software to gain trust from their clients,” Sutanto said.