The Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team (PAPT) led by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Optical Media Board (OMB) has just recently fortified its campaign against software piracy within Metro Manila.
Upon doing this, they found several unlicensed software installed in four businesses that include a real estate company, a commodities trading company, and two selling security and PC solutions.
Further investigation revealed that three of the commercial businesses were found lacking in compliance. Two companies which refused the inspection received an order to submit proof of purchase of genuine software to OMB’s legal department within 30 days due to its non-compliance.
The National Bureau of Investigation also conducted raids to 2 branches of Easy Computing and were found to be pre-loading unlicensed software in their machines. An estimated USD 9000 worth of machines were seized by NBI.
“Software piracy continues to negatively impact the country despite having the lowest software piracy rate in Southeast Asia. Software piracy deprives the economy of hundreds of millions of pesos in businesses that have lost revenues due to uncollected taxes. It also deprives the people of thousands of job opportunities which could have lessened the current unemployment rate in the country,” said IPOPHL deputy director General Allan Gepty.
Software piracy is a violation of the copyright provisions of the IP code of the Philippines (RA 8293) and Optical Media Act (RA 9239) and carries with it penalties of up to nine years of imprisonment, not to mention a fine of up to 1.5 million pesos.
For more information on PAPT campaigns and details on the PAPT countdown, call the PAPT Secretariat at (02) 368 5787 or visit www.papt.org.ph.