Tarun Sawney, BSA director of Anti-Piracy for Asia, has cited a case filed against Microsoft in 1997 which was not immediately resolved in the local court. "The problem here is that the resolution of a case takes a long time," says Sawney.

Violations against Ecommerce Law and IPR are tried in regular courts and no special courts were created by the Philippine judicial system to handle IT-related cases.

BSA has stepped up its drive against corporate piracy following the launch of a new campaign dubbed as "Detox Your PC to Keep Your Business Healthy."

The BSA campaign was endorsed by the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT), supporting BSA’s call for a clean and health IT and business environment through the use of licensed software.

Software piracy rate in the Philippines remains high at 72 percent, one of the highest in Asia, next only to China and Vietnam.

Cutting down on the use of unlicensed software does not only benefit the company itself but whole business environment and the country’s economy.

A recent study by the University of the Philippines showed that IT investments increased during the years when software piracy level went down.

Sawney noted that software piracy in the Philippines continues to be a problem and restrains the local ICT industry from reaching its maximum potential.

The new BSA campaign is a call to boost the ICT industry through the use of licensed software. The Philippines will stand to gain from increased investments, job creation and higher tax revenues if software piracy is reduced," says Sawney.

The campaign needs an analysis and identification of all the software products that a company needs. An inventory is conducted of all software installed in the company’s PCs to determine the unlicensed software.

CICT commissioner Tim De Vera noted that using unlicensed software would damage the computer system and generate substantial losses for companies.

Licensed software will assure companies of access to regular software updates and upgrades. De Vera also stressed the importance of using licensed software that would create highpaying jobs, promote good business practice and boost the economy.

BSA would be sending an educational direct mailer to companies throughout the country and conduct a free seminar on software asset management (SAM) to further help firms take full advantage of their IT investments. So far, 98 companies had signed for the SAM.

"We hope that through this campaign, companies get to realize the benefits of using original software. At the same time we are also reminding companies of the risks involved in using unlicensed software such as possible enforcement action by the NBI and other enforcement agencies which may result in costly downtime, hefty fines and tarnished reputation that would be hard to recover from," Sawney added.