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Combating illegal software downloads
As pirated software is pervasive on e-marketplaces, the extent of the associated damage to the nation’s economy may be more serious than we might nominally assume.
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Increased awareness of intellectual property (IP) rights may reduce unfair competition because IP owners will be more protected. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
T
he development of advanced technology has changed the course of trade from a brick-and-mortar approach to online channels, where most products are sold through e-marketplaces.
Despite being a game changer in terms of expanding firms’ sales, the online environment brings new challenges for authority, particularly with regard to controlling products that are being sold. As a result, pirated software, including operating systems, games, movies and productivity software, is seemingly rampant, being offered on various e-marketplaces.
The government has recently established an intellectual property (IP) task force consisting of various government agencies, including the Communications and Information Ministry, the Customs and Excise Directorate General, and the IP Directorate General, to combat online piracy.
The IP task force has liaised with e-marketplace operators and requested that they comply with prevailing copyright laws for the products marketed on their platforms. Offenders may be brought to court and made subject to criminal penalties, including heavy fines and, indeed, imprisonment for the most egregious violations. The government’s move to bolster enforcement against pirated products is timely and appropriate as many countries are now taking similar approaches, including China and Malaysia.
Selling pirated software might be one of the most profitable businesses online, as the associated sellers purportedly spend negligible amounts in terms of investment and can somehow massively inflate the selling price to end customers, allowing them to receive quite substantial profit margins. Buyers, to some extent, also benefit from purchasing illicit software since they can obtain the products at a price that is substantially lower than they would otherwise pay to the legal developer.
As pirated software is pervasive on e-marketplaces, the extent of the associated damage to the nation’s economy may be more serious than we might nominally assume.
First, Indonesia may not be seen as a favored investment destination as the country is on the Priority Watch List according to the United States Trade Representative (USTR). There is evidence to suggest a correlation between pirated software and a country’s economic growth, where the more extensive the piracy of software in a given country the lower the country’s economic growth as the influx of investment appears to be dampened.
