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Local
law enforcement once again takes strong steps to end piracy
– signalling
Government commitment to protect Intellectual Property
Rights
Colombo, Sri Lanka — 15th July 2008 — Bandula
Saman Kumara, owner of Tec Touch International, situated in
Yogiyana, Dankotuwa, and his associates, Shantha Senarath
and Gamini Padmasiri were charged in court today under the
Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003 for music and software
copyright infringement.
Pursuant to a complaint filed by local music producers, search
warrants were issued by the Magistrate of Marawila Ms. Nirosha
Fernando, resulting in raids which were conducted by Assistant
Superintendent of Police Nuwan Vedasinghe, Chief Inspector
Nimalsiri and Inspector C.A.P. Weerarathne of the Colombo
Crime Division (CCD) under the supervision of the Director
of CCD – Senior Superintendent of Police Anura Senanayake.
During the raid, thousands of counterfeit copies of local
music, movies, teledramas and business software belonging
to members of the Business Software Alliance were seized by
the Police.
“I hope this action sends out a clear message to those
dealing and selling counterfeits about the lengths we will
go to in order to prevent such activity. We will continue
to work with the community to take strong action against anyone
caught in possession of, or supplying, counterfeit music and
software in the area. The Colombo Crime Division is committed
to tackling piracy and I would urge anyone with any information
about such activity to contact CCD at all times,” stated
S.S.P Anura Senanayake, Director CCD.
On July 8th, following an extended investigation and prosecution
by the Police authorities, assisted by music producers M-Entertainment
and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) - through their lawyers
Sudath Perera Associates, the Court granted the accused bail
of Rs.25,000 for each case filed against them by different
copyright owners, a total of 9 cases against the owner of
Tec Touch himself, whilst 4 different cases were filed against
those transporting the goods. In addition, two surety bonds
of Rs.100,000 for each case had to be signed by the accused
with one of the sureties being a government employee in the
executive grade. The Sureties were also in turn ordered to
submit their respective Grama Sevake’s certificate confirming
that they reside in the same judicial division. Upon impoundment
of their passports, the Magistrate further ordered the accused
not to interfere with the witnesses thereafter.
This copyright case conducted by the Colombo Crime Division
follows closely behind the recent raids conducted in Colombo
against retail outlets which were selling counterfeit business
software. Pursuant to a complaint filed by the BSA earlier
this year, several shops were raided and hundreds of illegal
software belonging to software companies such as Adobe, Autodesk,
Corel, Microsoft and Symantec were seized. The raids were
led by A.S.P. Nuwan Vedasinghe of the Colombo Crime Division.
Within 24 hours, the owners of these outlets were charged
and convicted by the Magistrate of Mount Lavinia and were
sentenced with a fine of Rs.450,000/- each and 6 months imprisonment
suspended for 5 years.
“The sentences handed down in the earlier retail piracy
cases provide a reminder of the consequences of counterfeiting
software products. We applaud the work of the Police authorities
in taking such strong enforcement action to eradicate software
piracy” said Tarun Sawney, Regional Director for Anti-Piracy
of the BSA.
“With the focus on Intellectual Property protection by
the Sri Lanka authorities, there is certainly a clear signal
for companies who are using business software to start looking
at their own offices and ensuring all software in use is fully
licensed. For a very long time, Senior Management and IT Managers
have ignored or neglected to check if the software they are
running in their companies are licensed. Police had recently
conducted raids against retailers of counterfeit software
and now the distributors or manufacturers of counterfeit software
as well. It will just be a matter of time before companies
are also investigated for their use of pirated software. Hopefully,
companies will take the necessary steps today to get compliant
with Sri Lanka’s Intellectual Property laws before it
is too late” he added.
Sadly, Sri Lanka is no stranger to the issue of piracy, being
ranked as the country with the sixth highest piracy rate in
the world at 90%, and the second-highest in the Asia-Pacific
region - bringing notoriety and unwanted global attention
on the island. In a global software piracy study conducted
independently for the BSA by IDC, the information technology
(IT) industry’s leading global market research and forecasting
firm, the high software piracy rate has resulted in US$86
million in retail revenue losses to the local Sri Lankan software
economy.
The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the foremost
organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital
world. BSA is the voice of the world’s commercial software
industry and its hardware partners before governments and
in the international marketplace. Its members represent one
of the fastest growing industries in the world. BSA programmes
foster technology innovation through education and policy
initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security,
trade and e-commerce. BSA worldwide members include Adobe,
Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Bentley Systems, Borland, CNC Software/Mastercam,
Corel, McAfee, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging, PTC, Quark, Quest
Software, Siemens PLM Software, SolidWorks, Sybase, Symantec
and The MathWorks. BSA regional members in Asia include Agilent
Technologies, Altium, BEA Systems, Frontline PCB Solutions
- An Orbotech Valor Company, INUS Technology, Mindjet, Minitab,
SPSS, Tekla and Trend Micro.
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