Bangkok, Thailand (May 24, 2000) -- In an historic out-of-court settlement, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced its second biggest settlement for use of illegal software against a plastic manufacturing plant in Samut Prakarn Province.

Mr. Huey Tan, Vice-President of BSA in Thailand commented, "The raid against the plastic manufacturing was conducted after the announcement of the DIP Special Fund for IP Infringement Deterrence project.

“This settlement sends a very clear and strong warning to companies using illegal software: Using pirated software carries high risks and will result in severe financial penalties,” he asserted. “Now that the government has stepped up its enforcement efforts against companies using illegal business software applications, it is a sure risk if companies continue to use illegal software."

On May 8, the plastic manufacturing agreed to settle with BSA for copyright infringement. The settlement includes:

• Financial compensation for legal costs and damages;
  
• deletion of unlicensed software and its replacement by licensed products from BSA members and local software;
  
• Legalized usage of software on 73 personal computers;
  
• Agreement from the company to undergo a BSA software audit within a year to ensure no unlicensed software is being used by the company;
  
• An agreement to publish public apologies for unlicensed software usage.

The March 22 raid at Samut Prakarn Province of plastic manufacturing was led by 11 officers of the Economic Crimes Investigation Division (ECID), BSA representatives and 14 technicians. The raid was initiated by a full investigation into a BSA Hotline report about the illegal use of software in the plant. The results of the raid found that 73 PCs contained unlicensed and illegal versions of Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, Symantec and local software.

The settlement comes as BSA is currently exercising the industry campaign, crackdown campaign, with DIP, ATCI and ATSI to combat software theft. The campaign has educated more than 15,000 companies about the consequences of using illegal software and urge the companies contacted by the industry group to voluntarily complete a Certification form recently sent to them. The campaign also featured BSA hotline number for those who wish to seek for assistance or report the illegal use of software in their companies.

“The crackdown campaign was launched on April 25 and runs until mid June. We have received a record of 200 calls in the last 10 working days,” Mr. Tan said. “The calls indicated that users don’t treat their software as company value assets. Now is a good time for companies to make sure they are using legal, licensed software by taking notice of the industry groups educational information. Failure to do so, will result in costly consequences, as we has happened with the recent action against the plastic plant," added Mr. Tan.

The BSA has recently increased their reward structures, support and assistance to Thai enforcement authorities by introducing a dedicated enforcement hotline. This is used primarily as a tool to enhance coordination between Thai enforcement officials and BSA representatives during raids. BSA has also increased their investigative resources and formed alliances with local copyright industry representatives. Any member of the public who wishes to report on software piracy should still contact the BSA Hotline at 971-4140.

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