The Fight Against Counterfeit Software
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), an intellectual property watchdog, has found out "that a lot of PCs installed in the offices and factories of large Indian..." companies are running pirated, i.e., stolen, copies of business application software. Previously it was thought that business use of pirated software in India was primarily limited to small and mid-sized companies. BSA has announced that they intend "to disclose names of these organisations in due course."

The discovery of rampant piracy by large firms was discovered after BSA "re-launched" its round-the-clock complaint hotline. A BSA official in Asia was quoted at saying "we are looking at the complaints and have started the official inquiry. We hope to close the cases in the next three to eight months."

According to the story in India's Financial Express newspaper, India "is the only country in Asia where the percentage of software piracy has increased last year as compared with 2003...." The paper also explained that companies "can be penalised heavily under the current Indian copyright Act if it is proven that they're using pirated software."

Intellectual property including software, audio and video programming, and other copyrighted and patented materials, are among America's most vital and vibrant economic assets. Protecting these assets is not just some arcane legal issue, it is a task that is essential to defending our economic security.