It is no secret that software piracy in Romania is a problem for both the domestic and foreign software producers and for the authorities.
However, the plague of the IT society cannot be eradicated unless proper legal regulations are in force and the population becomes aware of the software products value.
This is the what Marja Laitinen, Business Software Alliance (BSA) vice-president for Central and Eastern Europe, told Ziarul Financiar in an interview, while attending the "Software copyright protection" seminar held in Sinaia throughout March 6-9.
The event was organised to grant Romanian prosecutors and judges the opportunity to train and exchange experience about solving software piracy cases in the country, as well as to debate the impact of the illegal use of computer programmes on the economy as a whole.
"It is capital that justice representatives should get a very clear picture of what piracy means, of its impact on the Romanian economy and of what kind of relations they have to develop with other authorities in order to solve this problem," Marja Laitinen said.
Although the software piracy rate decreased five percent throughout 1998-1999 (down to 81%), Romania is still one of the "highest" performing countries in this regard. The highest piracy rate is registered in Russia and in the Community of Independent States (more than 90% and 89% in Russia's case).
Addressing this issue will be a long and slow process as it has previously happened in Western Europe, where the weight of the software copied and illegally used reached 62% six years ago, according to Laitinen. Now the West can proudly announce a piracy rate of only 34%.
In spite of all the efforts to educate the population and change the attitude towards observing intellectual property rights, the Police had to be brought in to stop illegal computer programme use in many cases, the BSA official said.
"Many young IT specialists in Romania, Russia and Bulgaria choose to work abroad because making software in their native countries is not productive at such a high piracy rate.
Moreover, software-producing companies are not really interested in investing in countries where they are robbed of the rights for their products.
If the Government chooses not to take this problem seriously, the losses will be long-term ones and they will reach farther than the IT sector, affecting the entire economy," Marja Laitinen commented.
The seminar in Sinaia is part of a series of such events organised by BSA in several countries, which will soon cover the entire Central and Eastern Europe.
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