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10 Mar 2009
Comments:1
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has accused the UK government’s Digital Britain report of failing to adequately address the threat of software piracy.
As report author Lord Carter faces a grilling from MPs over his plans today, the BSA has slammed his lack of attention towards online piracy in particular.
Sarah Coombes, senior director of legal affairs at the BSA, said: “While we welcome the Digital Britain report and the Government’s growing commitment to the online world, too little attention has been focused on the threat of software piracy.
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“To realise Lord Carter’s ambition to see Digital Britain as the leading major economy for innovation, investment and quality in the digital and communications industries, it is imperative that we protect these industries from copyright infringement and piracy and remember that illegal peer to peer filesharing affects not just the music and film industries but the software and games market as well, among others.”
In light of the report the BSA is urging the UK Government to establishment a Rights Agency with powers to tackle software piracy, to follow the recommendations made in the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property in 2006, to strengthen IP damages law in the UK and to improve public education and awareness.
As part of the BSA’s internet programme the association claims to have shut down 18,314 auctions around the world selling 45,000 items of pirated software, worth a combined £12m.
Market watcher IDC estimates that more than one in four software installations are illegal and that a 10 percentage point decrease in software piracy over four years could generate nearly 14,000 new jobs in the UK, £6bn in economic growth and £1.5bn in tax gains.
Coombes concluded: “Now is the time to consider all forms of digital content when investigating a change to the law and a more robust legal approach to digital content theft.”
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Do you agree?
What planet is the BSA on?
?Now is the time to consider all forms of digital content when investigating a change to the law"
Is this mouthpiece somehow trying to suggest that software piracy isn't illegal and the law needs to be changed accordingly? Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
The BSA's members exert their policy influence through the direct lobbying of goverment anyway, so I'm not sure why they care about what Carter's report has to say.
Posted by Ethel Prunehat | 12 Mar 2009
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