By Hector Calabia
IDG News Service, Buenos Aires Bureau
BUENOS
AIRES, Argentina (20/10/2000) –
Two Argentine trade organizations, representing the
IT industry, began this week a media campaign against the use of pirated
software by public institutions and private business. According to the Chamber
of Software Companies and Computer Services (CESSI), the Argentine government
is one of the main users of illegally acquired software.
The campaign announces a "truce" until
November 15 before initiating further legal actions, and publicly threatens
with up to 6 years of jail for business executives that do not regularize their
software licenses.
Last week, the CESSI said that in spite of having
held negotiations for two years with the Argentine Government, the public
sector still uses software illegally.
A survey commissioned by the CESSI detected about
200 government institutions that use pirated software, in blunt disrespect for
the law and the copyright holders, said Jorge A. Cassino [CQ], chairman of the
Chamber, at a press conference.
"During the last two years we have succeeded
in having the Government admit that they use illegal software and we have tried
to have them regularize the situation," said Cassino. Among the official
institutions that use pirated software there are: the AFIP (Internal Revenue
Service), the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Police. According to Cassino,
the pirated software comprises products from Microsoft, Novell and Symantec.
The total cost of the pirated software is only
US$5.3 million, considering 40.000 software units used by Government
organizations, at the low prices offered to the public sector, compared with
the prices to businesses and consumers, said Cassino. This figure does not
include the provincial states, the town councils and the school sector.
Cassino added that the continuous replacement of
official negotiators makes a definitive solution difficult, in spite that the
payment conditions for software licenses are advantageous for the Government.
"This situation (causes that) as the public
organizations do not regularize their situation, we cannot press on the private
sector for their compliance with the law, when the people that should enforce
the law do not abide by it", Cassino said. The "exemplary" value
of the actions of the State is lost.
The irregularities in the use of software have
lowered the trust of US and European companies that the CESSI has been
contacting for business since the beginning of this year, Cassino said.
On May, the CESSI opened a US branch in Miami. The
opening was attended by senior executives of the Chamber member companies, and
supporters of its efforts against piracy: Sony Latin America, Acer Latin
America, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe Systems, Cannon Latin America, IFX Unete, Corel
Corp., Symantec, Network Associates, Cotel Com, Banco Nación Argentina, and
Interamerican Marketing Solutions.
CESSI Miami serves as a bridge institution for
integrating the production of Argentine software firms and US companies, with
the aim of "exporting Argentine IT knowledge", thus preventing the
emigration of qualified workers of the IT sector from the country.
Other trade organizations of software vendors have
joined efforts with the CESSI for stopping piracy. "Considering that the
'piracy index' in the public sector is very high, Software Legal has decided to
extend up to November 15 a 'truce on judicial actions' against the State"
and against private organizations, said Martín Carranza Torres, the chairman of
Software Legal, a trade association of software makers.
During an interview with the IDG News Service,
after the press conference, the chairman of the CESSI, Jorge Cassino said that
"if we sue the Government, I think that this will empower the software
companies for suing those people that steal their products". Besides, this
will be a cause of international discredit for Argentina.
The lack of compliance by the public sector makes
advances on certain software production outsourcing deals more difficult. There
are several cooperation agreements pending with foreign software makers,
Cassino said.
In Argentina intellectual rights are ruled by the Law
No. 11,723 passed in 1933, for protecting intellectual property in the media
known by that time. On November 10, 1998 Congress passed a bill for updating
the law, that included legal protection for software.
CESSI chairman said that when that by that time,
many companies regularized the software they use. However, this urge for having
legal products faded with time.
The
Argentine Chamber of Software Companies and Computer Services (CESSI) is at
http://www.cessi.org.ar. Software Legal can be reached at http://www.softwarelegal.org.ar/.
-------
|