"I will discuss this most contentious issue in an ICT-driven society: piracy, or the unauthorized use of copyrighted material or the consumption or sale of counterfeit goods, including all forms of media such as movies, literature, software, TV and radio programs," said Violet B. Valdez, PhD, of Department of Communication Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines.

Dr. Valdez spoke at Indonesian International Communication Conference, organized by Universitas Indonesia, in Jakarta, on Tuesday (23/11). Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa opened the two-day conference, on Monday.

"Software piracy is rampant in Asia. In 2007, Bangladesh ranked the second among the countries with the highest piracy rates, or the total number of units or pirated software vis-a-vis the total units of software installed," she pointed out in the conference, themed
"Global Challenge to The Future of Communications: Digital Media and Communication Freedom in Public Discourse."

In other words, she added, that nine out of 10 software installed in Bangladesh were bootleg. Indonesia does not rank too far from Bangladesh with a piracy rate of 84 percent and the Philippines 69 percent, Singapore had 37 percent. Among the First World countries, Germany had 27 percent, the United Kingdom and the United States were respectively 26 percent and 20 percent.

She said that there are two main opposing arguments in the debate over intellectual property rights in regard to software, the free-sharing and the proprietary rights. The first argument refers to the notion that software should be freely shared. Free-sharing is a practice and a "culture", as it were, that harks back to the inception of the Internet, particularly among the so-called academic hacker culture of that period

Opposed to the idea of free-sharing is the notion of proprietary software. According to this viewpoint, software is a commercial good and hence it is entitled to the rights of protection accorded to such goods, in particular, intellectual property right. It is argued that software copyright can be infringed when a copy of it is created and given away for free or for a fee.

"Both positions - free-sharing and proprietary rights - have their staunch advocates," said Valdez, who is Executive Director of Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ), the decade old journalism educational program with main sponsor Germany`s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).

Valdez is of the opinion that the existence of software in the realm of the Internet needs to return to its very earliest idea, viz. the benefits of the cyberspace is for all to share. As an emphasis, she brought forward the direction from UNESCO in this regard.

In 1999, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, noted that challenge for policy makers has been the preservation of an appropriate balance between the rights of owners and the public interest in the free circulation of information.

The developing countries had criticized the enhanced copyright protection inhibits equitable participation in the information society because it further increases cost of accessing content and applications.

International copyright agreements must not conflict with the more general principle of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Copyright law is not merely a means to protect the rights of copyright owners: it is directly concerned with the wider goals of enhancing education, science and culture.

Bill Gates` accusations

As she said earlier, Dr. Valdez has raised an issue which have been contentious, an issue that have been known to have made Bill Gates, Microsoft owner, never been really at ease. This is visible, according to Carlos Miranda, a Singapore-based ICT consultant, in the very first days when Gates entered the software domain.

Writing in blog, Miranda says that Bill Gates, then a 21 year-old enthusiastic programmer and co-founder of recently incorporated Microsoft the year before (1975), complaints in his letter about computer hobbyists "stealing software" by copying and distributing Microsoft`s version of BASIC.

Gates` complaint was carried in volume 2, Issue 1 of the newsletter published by the Homebrew Computer Club, a small Silicon Valley club of computer enthusiasts. His accusation is quite direct when he writes "(...) most of you steal software" and "most directly, the thing you do is theft."

But most relevant to understand the position of proprietary software companies such as Microsoft and their inadequacy to current existing software market conditions is Bill Gates rethorical question: "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?"

The answer is of course clear to almost everyone today: "the open source community, that`s who," Miranda emphasizes, adding that through the open source philosophy and its communities, professional and hobbyist developers spend countless hours jointly programming, finding all bugs, documenting products which belong to everyone and are distributed for free.

Indonesia for open source

Indonesia has been years within the list of software piracy as the nation gets more cyberspace-literate. According Communication and Informatics Ministry data, Internet users both regular and mobile connections have reached 45 million people, and 64 percent between 15-19 years old, with the government has publicly been leaning on the open source approach.

The government of Indonesia, under its Ministry of Administrative Reform has officially sent to all central and provincial government offices, including state-owned enterprises in Indonesia, Circular Letter No. 1 of 2009 issued on March 30, 2009, endorsing the use and adoption of open source software within government organizations.

More specifically, the ministry, concerning the "Utilization of Legal Software and Open Source Software (OSS)," encourages government agencies to use "FOSS" (Free Open Source Software) with a view toward implementation by the end of 2011, which the Circular states will result in the use of legitimate open source and FOSS software and a reduction in overall costs of software.

The letter was followed by subsequent clarification documents, including an April 2009 State Ministry of Research & Technology document regarding the "Migration to Open Source in Government Agencies."(*)

Source:

Vicki Febrianto
Antara News
http://antaranews.com