EU Software Firms Urge Tougher Enforcement Of Anti-Piracy Laws

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

04 June 2003

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has called for Europe's anti-piracy laws to be more aggressively enforced in order to minimise the losses suffered by the industry as a result of piracy.

According to reports in the regional media, in a recently conducted survey, the BSA found that the overall rate of piracy in the EU, Norway and Switzerland has fallen from 52% in 1994 to 35%. However, this still results in a loss of around $3 billion for the European software industry, a figure which the BSA feels is unacceptable.

'We need law enforcement in courts so that we can change the attitudes and behaviour of businesses on a major scale,' Beth Scott, vice-president of the BSA observed, continuing:

'It is fantastic to have a directive, but it is not offering as strong a deterrent as we would like. We need to ensure unnecessary national differences are no longer a factor but with this directive we are not going to achieve that harmonisation.'

According to AFX news, which reported on the survey's release, the Alliance is particularly concerned over the impact that the admission of the Central and Eastern European EU candidates- many of which have traditionally suffered high levels of piracy- will have on European Union levels.

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