FAST takes piracy fight to US

Organisation partners with US-based body to deal double blow to pirates

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has joined forces with a similar body in the US, to hit pirates hard.

The US-based Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) will work with FAST to promote better intellectual property regulation, sharing best practice between the two countries to influence government and policy, and also support more effective enforcement against those who infringe IP ownership.

Julian Heathcote Hobbins, general council at FAST, said: "Software piracy is a global problem and does not recognise national legal jurisdictions. Criminal activity can be conducted from nearly anywhere in the world. While FAST and the SIIA have made significant progress in their respective countries, there is a lot more we can achieve by sharing our knowledge and working together on key issues.”

The most recent BSA Global Software Piracy study revealed 57 per cent of respondents admitted to acquiring pirated software in the past year, a significant leap from the 42 per cent in 2010.

In addition, the commercial value of software piracy has increased from $58.8bn (£37bn) in 2010 to $63.4bn now.

Members of both parties will benefit from the link-up, each side claims, with FAST and SIIA helping each other with corporate and internet anti-piracy matters taking place in the UK, Europe and the US, on a case-by-case basis.

Keith Kupferschmid, general counsel at SIIA, claimed: “The partnership between SIIA and FAST can only strengthen our offering to our membership group. The global reach of the two parties will add value to our anti-piracy campaigns across the continents, which can only benefit the fight against piracy and software theft for corporations.”