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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Toughening up on software piracy
By Niveen WahishProtection of computer software against piracy is increasingly in the interest of the Egyptian economy because it will help attract more international investment to the country. Bringing an end to this form of piracy is no longer only demanded by developed countries of their less developed partners. Leaders in the software industry in developing economies such as Egypt now believe they stand to benefit as well.
Despite the fact that Egyptian law provides the legal basis to protect software, international statistics reveal that software piracy remains quite high in the local market. According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a non-profit international organisation which aims at eradicating software piracy, piracy rates in Egypt are estimated at some 85 per cent.
Ahmed Badr, project leader at IT Works, an Egyptian software company, points out that one should differentiate between piracy by individuals and by companies. He believes that individual piracy is very high largely because software programmes are very expensive and unaffordable to a large sector of society. A certain programme could cost around LE1,500 in Egypt while it could be purchased abroad for the equivalent of LE500.
But it is not only a matter of price. Badr said that many software users lack a "feeling of guilt" about pirating a programme. They take it for granted that they should not have to pay to have access to the programme, especially since copied software works just as well as the original. Of course, authorities will not check each individual in his home.
On the other hand, software piracy by companies and institutions in Egypt is not so high. Badr estimates that the rate is around 30 per cent. This is mainly because the government has the means to inspect these companies, and could possibly impose penalties on them if they break the law.
Those penalties could include, among other things, up to three years' imprisonment and/or fines reaching LE5,000. If an infraction of the law is repeated, imprisonment is mandatory and a fine of up to LE50,000 is levied. The penalties are stated within the Egyptian copyright law issued in 1954 and amended four times.
According to Mohamed Hossam Lutfi, attorney at law, the amendments most relevant to the issue of software piracy were enacted in 1992 and 1994. Lutfi made this comment when addressing a conference last week on "Protecting Computer Software in Egypt", co-sponsored by the Commercial Law Development Programme of the US Department of Commerce, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Trade and Supply, the Centre for Intellectual Property Studies and the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre.
Lutfi made it clear that Egypt is not waiting for the application of international agreements to provide the needed software protection. He said that the 1992 amendment clearly said that software is considered a literary work and thus enjoys the full protection of copyright law. The 1994 amendment specified that software programmes should be protected during the life-span of the author and for 50 years after his death. And if the authors are unknown, as is the case when software is produced by a company, the programme is protected for 50 years after its publication.
Lutfi said that with the application next year of international agreements affecting software, Egypt will become accountable to the international community. Starting in the year 2000, the GATT agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) becomes binding on Egypt. There are provisions in the TRIPS agreement which ensure that all of the general copyright-related obligations in the agreement apply to computer programmes, just as they apply to any other work.
The agreement, signed in 1994, allows developing countries such as Egypt a transitional period until 1 January 2000 before the terms of the agreement must be applied. The least developed countries have until the year 2004 before they may be held accountable. Egyptian chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical products have an extended transitional period. Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection of original works of authorship.
To meet its obligations, Lutfi said what Egypt needs is strict and stronger enforcement of the law because increased protection will attract more investments which will create a more competitive market and provide more jobs.
In fact, according to Raafat Radwan from the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), much needed international investors may be reluctant to enter the Egyptian market for fear of piracy. The Egyptian software industry is working hard to evolve into a large-scale industry, he said, but to build large companies in Egypt will require international cooperation. However, in his opinion, this cooperation cannot be achieved if software cannot be protected.
One of the problems related to Egyptian exports in general is that they are mostly low value-added types of products, according to Radwan. But the software industry has the highest value-added of any industry. "If we want to move into a higher export profile, we have to move into high value-added products, and at the top of the list is the software industry," Radwan said. For these reasons, protection of software is increasingly important to the Egyptian economy.
Voicing similar support for the application of copyright protection, Badr of IT Works said that "it is definitely in Egypt's interest". He believes that such protection will lead to the growth of the local software market, and will enable Egyptian software developers to keep track of how well a programme is doing, allow them to collect royalties due and encourage more productivity.
Jeffrey Steinhardt, vice-president of Business Software Alliance (BSA), reiterated the need for tougher enforcement of the law. To help bring down piracy rates not only should penalties be high enough to deter counterfeiting and piracy, but "the process has to be swift and some people have to suffer as examples," he said. This will make others realise that the laws are actually being applied.
Steinhardt believes that what is lacking in Egypt is enforcement directed at end-users such as companies or institutions which are using software but not paying for the rights to use it. These businesses could be infringing the law even when they install original copies on additional computers or make software available to dozens of employees over network servers without obtaining further licences.
Other violators are the hardware vendors who install illegal copies of software programmes on the hard drives of computers for free as a form of promotion.
