SINGAPORE--While small and midsized businesses (SMB) in Singapore are aware of the island-state's new copyright laws, nearly a third of respondents in a recent survey are still not compliant.
Under Singapore's Copyright Act, revised early this year, it is a criminal offence for a person or company to obtain a commercial advantage from unlicensed or pirated software. Offenders face a fine of up to S$20,000 (US$12,250) and up to six months imprisonment.
Conducted by research firm Intercedent Asia, the study polled 100 SMBs in Singapore to gauge their level of compliance since the amended laws came into effect in January this year, said Liew Woon Yin, director-general of Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos), which commissioned the survey.
According to the study, awareness of the new law is high among SMBs, with three-quarters of respondents saying they are aware of the copyright legislation.
About 28 percent of respondents said they were already compliant. These businesses also indicated they have taken measures to ensure they only buy software from credible sources. In addition, 65 percent of them said they conduct regular software audits.
Among those that said they were not compliant, 47.3 percent are small businesses with fewer than 10 workstations. "This clearly points to the fact that the smaller companies are still facing problems to be compliant," Liew said.
She added that Ipos had presented findings from the survey to software vendors, which then responded by launching a second Software Licensing Program (SLP) that offers discounts of up to 60 percent for their business software. The first SLP started in October 2004 and ended two months later.
The second SLP will include software offerings from Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Borland, Computer Associates (CA), Microsoft, Novell, SIACAD, Sun Microsystems and Symantec. The program commenced on Nov.1 and will end Dec. 23 this year, with the exception of Sun and CA, whose promotions will continue through March next year.
"One reason provided by (the survey) respondents, for not being compliant, is the relative high cost of software," Liew said. "We hope it is not just the larger companies, but (to see) more of the smaller enterprises to come forward to take this opportunity and become compliant."
To further help SMBs become compliant, the respondents also suggested vendors change the way their software is priced or packaged, and give the businesses more time to ensure compliance. The SMBs also noted that the use of open-source software would help them stay compliant, according to the study.
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