By Don Sambandaraksa
Monday, October 29 2007 01:06 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62033898,00.htm

BANGKOK--The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has appointed a country representative for Thailand in order to engage with local businesses, software vendors and government to combat the endemic problem of software piracy which has stubbornly hovered around the 80 percent mark for the past three years.

Siripat Patrangul now represents the face of BSA in Thailand when working with government to formulate policy as well as with liaise with industry to promote the message of the importance of intellectual property rights.

Making the announcement in Bangkok, BSA vice-president and regional director for Asia-Pacific Jeffrey Hardee explained how the growing PC market, forecast by IDC to increase by 18 percent this year, meant higher and higher losses in absolute terms and that it was now time for Thailand to clean up its industry for everyone's benefit.

Various studies have shown a direct correlation between a low piracy rate and the health of a country's IT industry. Hardee said that if Thailand were to bring down the piracy rate by 10 percentage points over the next four years, this would translate to over 5,000 highly paid IT jobs, US$1.9 billion in GDP growth and over US$75 million in extra tax for the government. He stressed that of this growth, US$1 billion would go to local suppliers and system integrators and thus directly benefit the local economy.

According to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit on IT competitiveness, Thailand today languishes in 41st place out of 64 countries. Perhaps not too surprisingly, the study showed that we fared worst in terms of our legal environment, lack of research and development facilities and an inadequate IT infrastructure.

"The BSA thinks we have an important role to play in helping the government and industry develop a strong IT sector," he said.

BSA's new Thailand representative Siripat Patrangkul and VP Jeffrey Hardee talk of the long hard work they have ahead to reduce Thailand's 80 percent piracy rate.

Hardee said that there was no shortcut, only a long, hard process of awareness building. However, he said that the success in China, which cut its piracy rate by ten percentage points over three years, means that it is not impossible. One thing he said he wished for was a champion in government to help spread the message here.

Siripat, on her first day on the job, said she looked forward to working with the Association of Thai ICT Industry (ATCI), Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI), the Ministry of ICT's Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Intellectual Property and the Ministry of Justice's Economic and Technological Crime Supression Division (Ecotec) to help Thailand's IT industry grow and to play a role in helping to shape government policy.

In the first nine months of this year, the BSA has had 250 leads for corporate piracy submitted to its hotline and five of the informants have been paid a portion of the reward money of 250,000 baht. However, most cases end in an agreement and education rather than a formal prosecution, she noted.

Asked how the move to more free software, both Open Source and proprietary, would affect the BSA's work in the future, especially now that IBM has announced that Lotus Symphony the office component of Lotus Notes, will be given away for free, Hardee said that the BSA always welcomed competition and innovative business models, whether it was paid for up-front, with paid-for support or otherwise.

However, it was the choice of a developer to engage in software development using Open Source tools and to give it away for free, he said. Open Source is based on the principle that developers have that choice to protect their intellectual property and keep that code free.

Hardee also praised Thailand for the maturity of its legal system. Thailand today has a separate intellectual property court and he listened to a Thai judge talking about the court at a recent seminar in Bhopal, India, where they were trying to set up their own special IP court. Taiwan and Malaysia have both just recently set up IP courts, long after Thailand did, he said.