An international organization aimed at cleaning up pirated software ended a campaign last month that offered amnesty to companies knowingly or unknowingly using illegal computer programs. Companies will now face stiff fines and even possible jail sentences if they are caught.
About 1,400 companies in Latvia responded to the campaign by Business Software Alliance (BSA), an organization representing the world's largest software companies and Latvia's computer software producers.
BSA, in cooperation with the economic affairs police, earlier in September announced a 60-day moratorium on inspection into the legality of software in the Baltic countries. The campaign ended on Oct. 1.
During the amnesty period the computer users had the chance to legalize the software without fearing sanctions.
BSA also helped companies become legal.
"No probes into the origin of software were conducted, but several retailers of pirated programs were discovered," said Janis Bordans, BSA representative for legal matters in Latvia.
The organization sent letters along with questionnaires to about 10,000 companies. Company managers were asked to describe how they used their present software, among other questions.
"Although the cease-fire is over, the questionnaires will be still accepted through Nov. 15," said Ieva Sneidere, a BSA representative.
"This was the only chance for companies to legalize their software and BSA will not hold another campaign in future, but in cooperation with state institutions, illegal software program users will be acknowledged."
During the campaign BSA received about 1,700 phone calls.
"The majority of questions asked were about the possibilities to buy legal programs or legalize existing ones," said Sneidere.
The campaign was launched to remind company managers about software copyrights. It is often forgotten that "legislation envisages significant fines and even imprisonment for illegal use of computer software. Even copying over of one legally acquired software to another computer is punishable," said Bordans.
For the use of illegal programs an administrative penalty of between $400 and $12,500 could be imposed on private persons and companies, or a criminal case opened that could lead to up to two years imprisonment.
Estonian companies, however, face fines of up to $31,000.
Bordans could not confirm whether the number of illegal program users has decreased, adding that the organization will tally statistics at year's end. According to last year's statistics, the use of pirated software in Latvia is high.
The business newspaper Biznes and Baltija reported last week that 90 percent of the software used in Parliament is illegal, as is about half used in the Ministry of Interior.
Last year, after a legalization campaign by Microsoft, Estonia saw the biggest drop in software piracy of the three Baltic countries. The percentage of illegal software fell from 86 percent to 72 percent. In Lithuania it fell from 92 percent to 81 percent, but in Latvia it fell just 5 percent from 90 percent to 85 percent.
Ieva Sneidere explained that the situation in Estonia is improving more rapidly because BSA has been working there for four years. It has only been in Latvia for two years.
Another problem is that the black market has become more sophisticated and purchasers may be fooled.
"In the beginning illegal software CDs were sold wrapped in newspaper, now they are in a proper box with names," she said. "That is why we are here, to explain that a CD with 100 programs bought for five lats is not legal."
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