The Hindu Business Line : Copyright notices to ISPs on the rise

Business Software Alliance has issued more than 15,000 notices to ISPs (Internet service providers) in India till September this year, on infringing activity.

Sharing this information with Business Line, the BSA’a Vice-President and Regional Director (Asia), Mr Jeff Hardee, said the monthly average notice issuance has risen from 220 in 2006 to 1,682 this year.

“India has registered the fastest increase in copyright infringement compared to any other country in Asia,” he said and attributed it to “lack of awareness and total disregard of the copyright laws”.

Stating that it is important for people to understand that what they do on the Net “can and will be tracked” he said, “It is sad to note that India is not among those countries that have ratified the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) Copyright Treaty.” The WIPO Treaty has been ratified by 62 countries.

“While the Government maintains that the Corporate Law is under review and the Bill would have to be passed incorporating the amendments, there is a need to understand that there are a large number of corporates here and they deserve good protection to transact online,” Mr Hardee said.

Cautioning about file sharing services, he said users invariably become victims of identity theft when they download files in the same location in which their personal data is stored, for, the data that is stored in the system gets uploaded without the users’ knowledge.

According to Tiversa study, about 12 million people are logged on to P2P networks worldwide at any given time and 450 million copies of P2P software downloaded. “While China and India compete for leadership in many sectors, including IT, China is surely acting upon illegal downloading.

China’s National Administration of Copyright (NAC) has launched a new campaign to crack down on illegal downloads of films, music, software and textbooks in the country’s latest move to fight piracy,” he said.

The IDC study shows that the piracy rate in India has fallen to 71 per cent in 2006 compared to 82 per cent in China, “but the decline is very slow.

China managed to bring the rate down by 10 per cent from 93 per cent in 2001 to 82 per cent last year, but India could manage only a 2 per cent reduction in three years,” Mr Hardee said, emphasising the need for initiation of stringent measures to curb piracy. (India has registered a piracy loss of over a billion dollars in 2006 against $565 million in 2005.)

Mr Hardee further pointed out that China was working on a plan to develop a software industry to bring down the piracy rate, while the orientation in India was only on export of software services.

“China is keen to develop a local market. India has a huge domestic market due to the steep rise in PC penetration. The Government though is not giving much attention,” he alleged.