Brunei On Anti-Piracy Watch
By Narissa Noor & M K Anwar

Bandar Seri Begawan - Almost all copyright protected products sold in the market here are illegal. This is the worrying revelation outlined by the International Intellectual Property Alliance in its annual report on Brunei Darussalam.

The IIPA, among their recommendations, requested that the local Commercial Crime Unit commence a sweep of pirate retail markets and develop a responsive core of officers to industry concerns and complaints lodged by right holders.

They also recommended that the relevant authorities develop target cases for the courts targeting most commercially damaging activity.

Further in their recommendation was the amendment of the Electronic Transaction Order (2000) to provide adequate incentive for service providers to cooperate with copyright holders in upholding their rights in the online and digital environments. It includes notices and takedown and also preserving liability should third parties fail to cooperate with the right holders or facilitate infringement.

With increasing Internet usage, another worrying issue highlighted by the IIPA is the problem of Internet piracy, which they described "may loom on the near horizon".

Music and software piracy may be one thing but the mindset of the people is another.

With its availability in the market, these counterfeit products have been etched deeply in the minds of the people and have become part of their lifestyle. A pirated copy is the first thing people will buy every time a new movie or album comes out.

Some observers noted that it is the lack of original products, especially computer software, that are encouraging people to buy the counterfeit copies.

QQeStore, one of the leading online retailers in the country, said that the sales of genuine software are increasing compared to previous years.

They disclosed that they have been receiving a lot of enquiry for other genuine software which were not available on their website.

"One of the reasons customers go for non-original software is simply because they are not able to find the genuine copies in the shops," they added.

One ardent consumer admitted that without the availability of pirated CDs, DVDs or computer software, he would definitely purchase original copies. But as long as pirated copies were available, the choice between the two remains obvious.

In anticipation of the increasing demand, the online store, in the coming months, is planning to add more genuine software to their store including the application and games software for Microsoft Windows and Apple MAC OS.

The advancement of copy protection software is also leading people to choose original software. Some software nowadays will only be updated if it is a genuine version. A computer storeowner commented that they have sold more than 500 copies of the original Windows Vista and one of the reasons why people are now choosing the original Vista package is because they have understood the importance of updates.

This is, however, not the case for music and videos. Prices of these counterfeit versions have gone down over the years with some offering as low as $1 per CD while some even go down to as low as 50 cents.

The United States, the IIPA report stated, is also set to participate in the full Trans-Pacific Strategic Partnership, also known as the P-4 agreement, a multilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore signed in June 2005.

This agreement could open doors in the introduction of intellectual property standards on par with those included in the various FTAs between the US and its trading partners. In support of this process, the IIPA hopes that the government of Brunei will negotiate FTA standards on intellectual property, similar to those enforced in Singapore.

With an IIPA estimation of somewhere between 75 and 200 retail shops in the country offering pirated products, changing people's mindsets can be very difficult but one important thing highlighted by observers is the need for the relevant authorities to act fast to tackle this matter. It is inevitable that sooner or later the authorities have to take action considering the impact it can make on foreign investors to the country.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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