Bangkok, Thailand (May 29, 2000) – The Business Software Alliance (BSA) today announced a cash reward payment to an informant whose diligent efforts led to legal action against a plastic manufacturer in Samut Prakarn Province

The informant, responsible for alerting the BSA , received a maximum 250,000 baht reward. These actions resulted in a successful raid and subsequent legal action against the plastic manufacturer. Only recently, BSA announced an increase reward of baht 5,000 to those calls to the BSA hotline that provide information leading to an investigation. After an investigation leads to a successful raid and legal action the informant will receive another reward of 250,000 baht.

Mr. Weerawit Weeraworawit, Deputy Director General, Department of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Commerce, commended the efforts of the informer. “We salute people who do the right thing. We understand that callers consider it a risk to report the illegal use of software however intellectual property protection is everyone’s responsibility.”, he said.

“We are hurting our economy badly by using pirated software. Our challenge at the DIP is to fight the illegal use of the software and reduce Thailand’s piracy rate,” Mr. Weerawit Weeraworawit said.

“We do not support business who use illegal software to run their operations. Not only are they receiving stolen property but they encourage the seller of this software to hurt our economy. We must do everything to stop them” he said.

Mr. Huey Tan, Vice President, BSA said that software piracy has serious repercussions on investment in the developing Thai software market. “BSA acknowledges and rewards those who come forward and report the illegal use of the software in the workplace. In doing so they help our local software industry and the economy as a whole. The 250,000 baht reward is one way of saying thank you to them” he said.

DIP, ATCI, ATSI and BSA have initiated a joint industry crackdown campaign, to fight piracy. The campaign includes a direct mail to more than 15,000 corporate users warning them of the consequences of using illegal software. At the same time, additional resources have been made available to investigate and pursue legal action against those companies on the BSA hot list. The BSA hot list comprises of companies suspected to be using unlicensed software. After initial contact, BSA surprise visits and police raids are conducted against end users and retailers that do not voluntary reform their illegal software behavior. Fines and possible jail sentences are all consequences that companies and sellers face if found with pirated software. To report the illegal use of pirated software please call the BSA Hotline on 971-4140.

About BSA
The Business Software Alliance promotes the continued growth of the software industry through its international public policy, education and enforcement programs in 65 countries throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. BSA worldwide members include the leading publishers of software for personal computers including Adobe, Autodesk, Attachmate, Bentley Systems, Corel Corporation, Inprise, Lotus Development, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates, Novell, Symantec and Visio. Additional members of BSA’s Policy Council include Apple Computer, Compaq, IBM, Intel, Intuit and Sybase. More information about BSA can be found on our Internet site, at http:\www.bsa.org

In the Asia-Pacific region, BSA maintains a series of formal memberships and informal relationships with Asia-Pacific software associations and software companies. In Thailand, BSA has formed an alliance with the Association of the Thai Computer Industry and the Association of the Thai Software Industry.

Contact Information

Name: Ms. Pranee Chalermtanasak
Email: pranee@pc-a.inet.co.th
Phone: (662) 9713711-2