The Nazir of the High Court, along with Police aid, conducted a raid under orders of Sindh High Court (SHC) against a mid-sized business involved in violation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) through use of unlicensed software.
The Nazir of the SHC, accompanied by a police party, conducted the raid at the office of Ravian Group of Companies, namely Ravian International Agencies and Ravian Shipping Pvt Ltd and its Directors and IT Manager, doing business at a posh location in Defence Housing Authority, Karachi.
The Ravian Group of companies is engaged shipping, transport and logistics business and are a well-established name in the shipping and transport industry in Pakistan.
In the complaint, filed under the provisions of the Copyright Ordinance 1962, the complainant, Microsoft, alleged that Ravian and its affiliate companies, including its Directors and IT Manager, were violating its Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), by running unlicensed Microsoft software. Microsoft also pleaded that it had undertaken a number of steps to draw the attention of Ravian's management to the violations and to convince them to purchase licences for the software being used in their company, but there was unfortunately no response from them to legalise their unlicensed software use.
After reviewing Microsoft's plaint, the court concluded that there was enough substance in the plaint to grant a restraining order against Ravian and its affiliate companies and also appointed the Court Nazir as Commissioner, to raid the offices of Ravian along with the support of local police and IT Experts to determine the extent of unlicensed software usage by the Defendants.
According to sources, the Court Nazir found a large number of PCs, including servers and laptops, in which various unlicensed versions of Microsoft software were purportedly being run, including the Microsoft Windows Operating System and Microsoft Office suite.
The curse of software piracy is a huge issue in Pakistan. As per the results of the recently announced 2010 Piracy Study, conducted annually by Business Software Alliance (BSA), the voice of the world's software industry and its hardware partners, and the IDC, Pakistan is rated among the top 15 countries with the highest rate of software piracy.
As per the current study, the rate of software piracy in Pakistan was measured at 84 percent i.e. every 8 out of 10 PCs are running unlicensed software. Contrary to general impression, medium and large-scale companies are also engaged in software piracy.
Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager - Microsoft Pakistan, says that IPR violations have been a major problem in Pakistan and send a negative signal to the global community. "Software piracy is a huge impediment in the development of IT sector in Pakistan. The country needs stricter enforcement of IPR laws, as increased use of legitimate software will result in greater investment, both by local as well as international companies. This will generate more IT jobs, improve tax collection and lead to more IT creativity.
Considering the current challenges in attracting foreign investment into Pakistan, Microsoft advocates a strong IPR-friendly environment for economic and social prosperity."
The negative impact created by high rate of software piracy and lack of enforcement to correct the situation, is creating a major challenge in attracting foreign investment into Pakistan.
According to a survey published by reputable Economist Intelligence Unit (EiU) in 2008, Pakistan was ranked 62nd among the different nations in terms IT industry competitiveness. Pakistan was rated even lower than other regional countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Pakistan needs a concrete and comprehensive approach to tackling software piracy and the infringement of other intellectual property rights.
Expressing his views, Dale Waterman, Microsoft's Corporate Attorney for Anti-Piracy for the Middle East and Africa said, "Pirated software has an enormous impact upon the entire software ecosystem, and the country as a whole. Increasing partnerships between the public and private sector is crucial to the success of combating piracy in any country. The government, through channels like law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, can lead by example and be one of the most effective mechanisms for changing public perceptions about the need to protect Intellectual Property Rights, sending a strong and clear message that the government will not tolerate software piracy in Pakistan."-PR
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