Guess what, I was the first to know that the Government of Pakistan and Business Software Alliance were planning a massive crack down on software pirates and pirated software users. I was sitting in the Passenger Lounge of Lahore International Airport for my journey to Bangladesh in order to attend the APC Asia ICT Policy Meeting organized by Bytes For All and BFES. Getting bored, I just flipped my headphones and connected FM-100 on my mobile phone when I heard the words, we are going to crackdown on Software Piracy!!!! Thats where I quietly sat and heard the whole story and sent
out a global alert, even though I don’t really know how global it became but I have been recieving comments from all over the world! So here is the news that I sent out:
Breaking IPR News – BSA & Federal Authorities to initiate massive crack down on Software Piracy Submitted by fouadbajwa on Tue, 2006-04-18 05:12.
(FOSSFP Global Software Freedom News Alert)
In an interview session conducted by a private nationwide radio channel FM-100 on 17th April 2006, BSA Middle east head Reza Al-Reda has revealed that BSA and Federal Authorities (IPO & FIA) will carry out a massive crackdown on organizations using pirated software in Pakistan. Reza revealed that a truce has been announced under which Pakistanis have been allotted a time duration from April 20th 2006 till 20th May 2006 to delete pirate software/illegal software from their machines, after which, pirated software users will face heavy penalties under the national copyright laws being enforced by the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan. The real threat comes from the fact that the Pakistan Government has not formally announced these activities on national mass media sources leaving the public at large unaware of this activity.
Where FOSSFP is struggling to create mass awareness on Software Piracy, its implications and guiding the citizens of Pakistan towards Free and Open Source Software, the Government or BSA are going to carryout an activity that may deprive Pakistanis to their basic human right to use and benefit from Software ICT Freedom. In a country where the population is well over 160 million, 47% literacy rate with a very small fraction of the population capable of understanding English language, ICT is still alien to a large amount of the population. FOSSFP has discussed the issue with global Pakistan satellite TV channels and Dr. Shahid Masud of ARY Digital has shown interest to voice this issue on the network provided that a significant amount of concern on the implications of this Anti-Software Piracy activity is voiced. FOSSFP is sending out an appeal to global Civil Society and organizations in the FOSS Community to take action and buy time from the Government of Pakistan to educate the citizens of Pakistan about Softawre Piracy and its alternatives as provided by FOSS and Ubuntu-Linux.
To send your concerns to ARY Digital TV, kindly send and email to Dr. Shahid Masud at viewsonnews@arydigital.tv or bajwa@fossfp.org. Help stop the next biggest Human Rights violations in the emerging Information Society, help educate Pakistanis on Software Piracy and its alternatives, help promote ICT Software Freedom for Everyone!
2 responses so far ↓
James // August 5, 2006 at 9:04 pm |
I saw that you have a page that discusses patent-related resources at http://fossmullah.wordpress.com/tag/intellectual-property/. I wanted to suggest adding http://www.freepatentsonline.com to the page. This web site has free PDF downloading (instead of having to page through TIFFs like at the US PTO). It is by far the best free patent searching site.
shahzad // November 24, 2006 at 3:12 pm |
your program has been at the helm of current issues program.please hold a session with Gen.Gul on the subject of ” future India Pak war ” and paksitani chances .