Owners' response a must to curb software piracy

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

In order to protect the Information Technology sector from software piracy, individuals should come forward when such violations occur making the fake product identification less complicated, said Dr. D.M. Karunaratne, Director General of the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka.

"It is that individual who will know exactly how to identify his own creation rather than an outsider.

If they come forward it would greatly assist the Police or any of such regulatory bodies to identify the wrongdoer," Dr. Karunaratne said.

A recent research on software piracy, done by an independent group, has revealed that in Sri Lanka it is at a shocking rate of 90 per cent.

The independent research was released at a conference held in Colombo recently, cosponsored by the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Business Software Alliance and European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is the sixth highest in the world where high rate of software piracy happens. Installation of unlicensed or illegally obtained software on new personal computers is widespread in this island nation.

"We are always ready to assist individuals who come forward to take legal action in case of software piracy," Dr. Karunaratne pointed out. "Intellectual Property rights are individual rights. Therefore, it is the individual's responsibility to take appropriate action against such violations," he further said.

The Sri Lanka Law College has introduced Information Technology to their curriculum with the assistance of the National Intellectual Property office at its initial stages. It also conducts a Diploma course for the working lawyers to upgrade their knowledge on IT in order to make their job straightforward in dealing with software piracy cases.

"The pertaining legal system is sufficiently strong to protect these individual rights. A person can file a case against such theft at the Commercial High Courts and if not satisfied with the judgement can straight away proceed to the Supreme Court, without going to the Court of Appeal as usually required," Dr. Karunaratne stressed.