Lancet Worldwide Outsourcing News
Intellectual Property Rights in Offshore Outsourcing of Software Development
Piracy and theft of intellectual property are genuine concerns of those businesses contemplating to outsource their software development to Russia and China.
The reality of the rampant piracy in these countries and watered down or ineffective intellectual property rights legislation hit home when a number of US businesses, outsourcing software to these countries, realized first hand the weak and ineffective intellectual property right legislation they had access to. The Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State reported:” The U.S. private sector has claimed that China and Russia are the two countries with the most rampant intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting.”
The noises emanating from those US businesses burnt by poor IPR legislation in these countries have resonated in tough talk by senators such as, Utah Republican senator Orrin Hatch and others. They have all reprimanded China and Russia.
“Before the Congress votes in favor of Russia joining the WTO, many of us will have to be convinced that the Russian government is serious about cracking down on theft of U.S. intellectual property," said Orrin Hatch.
“U.S. lawmakers are increasingly frustrated over the widespread piracy of films, music, software and other copyrighted U.S. products in countries such as China and Russia, says another prominent Republican senator.”
James Mendenhall, acting general counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) expressed concern over legislation with no teeth in these countries as “incremental” at best.
Conspicuously missing from these tirades were references to any inadequacy of IPR legislation enacted in India. It may be surmised that the reason why India did not come in for criticism has to do with the genuine effort on the part of its government--its red tape notwithstanding-- to enforce IPR laws which have some meaning.
But the dwindling popularity of pirating in India, especially, of software, while it has to do with legislation, has also to do with a growing computer culture in this country that recognizes that outsourcing which is projected to bring in 24 billion dollars to the country in 2008, is not something to be messed around with. India with a firm grip on 80 percent of software outsourcing has seen a growth in the employment ranks of those who would have otherwise been unemployed, and these people have turned into vigilantes. They are willing to passionately protect IPR, if not for altruistic reasons, at least for reasons tied with safeguarding their jobs.
In India IPR of computer software now fall under Copyright Law legislation, with major changes introduced in 1994. After these amendments it is claimed that the Indian Copyright Law is one of the toughest in the world.
According to section 14 of this Act, it is illegal to make or distribute copies of copyrighted software unless proper permission or specific authorization is obtained from the owner of the copyright and any infraction can result in violator/violators being tried both in civil and criminal law.
Section 63 B stipulates a minimum jail term of 7 days, which can be extended up to 3 years for any infringement of the law and the imposition of heavy fines and return of profits made illegally...
*In my next RSS feed I will outline the Best Practices the businesses in North America should adopt to protect Intellectual Property, when they outsource software development to India.
Lancet Worldwide, Akbar Burney - Technical Outsourcing Consultant
Published Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:36:32 -0400
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