Antipiracy Efforts Seek Funding

WASHINGTON--The federal government again appears ready to put some cash behind the fight against "intellectual property theft" such as software piracy.

The Department of Justice will get $10 million to target, investigate, and prosecute intellectual property theft, by the recent vote of a House subcommittee. The allocation still needs approval from the full House and the Senate.

Industry Eager

Not surprisingly, the funding proposal has met with applause from the Business Software Alliance, a software industry lobby group.

"We are heartened to see this renewed commitment from Congress to join forces with all affected industries to catch and prosecute these criminals," says Robert Holleyman, BSA president and CEO. "The losses to the software industry are measured in both hard dollars and an intangible stifling of innovation due to loss of copyright protections."

The Department of Justice will use the funds to prosecute operations that traffic intellectual property in various forms.

For example, the FBI is currently conducting "Operation Buccaneer," which targets organized groups that sell pirated films, music, and software, according to Bob Kruger, BSA vice president of enforcement. Also, the Motion Picture Association of America is warning of an increase in movie piracy.

Kruger says Congress allocated roughly the same amount for the same purpose in fiscal 2004. The figure is a relatively small line item in the budget, possibly due to the issue's low profile among lawmakers.

"The DOJ could easily spend ten times that much, given the breadth of the problem, so law enforcement needs training to pursue the cases that deliver the most bang for the buck," Kruger says.

The Commerce-Justice-State-Judiciary appropriations subcommittee passed the appropriation last Wednesday, one day after the BSA released a report estimating that 22 percent of the software used in the U.S. is pirated.

Late last week, lobbyists were already mounting the Hill armed with the BSA report to help secure new federal monies for the battle against piracy. The BSA presented its report Thursday at an intellectual property caucus co-chaired by Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Florida), Tom Feeney (R-Florida), Adam Smith (D-Washington), and Mary Bono (R-California).

"We reiterated our cause, and people seemed very engaged," says Wendy Rosen, another BSA representative. "It underscored the importance of the problem, and that it is not on the decrease."

Bipartisan Effort

The Intellectual Promotion and Piracy Prevention Caucus is a new, nonpartisan group formed to make Congress more aware of software piracy.

"Intellectual property theft is not a well-known issue yet," says Ryan Visco, legislative director for caucus member Feeney. "Congressman Feeney helped start the caucus as a way of educating congressmen on the negative effects piracy can have on their states, like lost jobs and tax revenue."

Other industry lobbyists say education is key to curbing software piracy.

"Better awareness and education would be the most complete response to the problem," says Keith Kupferschmid, vice president of intellectual property and enforcement at the Software & Information Industry Association, another trade group that counts antipiracy efforts among its priorities.

"We've got to get people to voluntarily stop pirating software--we have a lot of public awareness work to do," Kupferschmid adds.

BSA's Kruger acknowledges the importance of education, but underscores the need for criminal prosecution.

"This is a multifaceted problem; part of the solution has to include law enforcement action to create the necessary deterrent, and to highlight the consequences," Kruger says.