A representative of antipiracy group BSA (Business Software Alliance) has said that they have begun scanning Asia-Pacific websites and users of file-sharing networks. They expect to crawl thousands of infringing websites every month in the country where peer-to-peer software is one the biggest problems for the BSA:
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So far, software-swapping Web sites have been found in Singapore, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and China, he said. Many of these Web sites discovered by the crawler have been shut down by the Internet service providers (ISPs) still hosting them after being served with a legal letter called a "notice of take-down" by the BSA. So far, most ISPs have readily complied, said Hardee. Though the BSA was not behind the recent arrest of students in Sydney, Australia who were sharing music files, he did not rule out police action against those who share software on the Internet "if governments decide to enforce legislation," he said. The Web crawler used by BSA comes from BayTSP, a Los Gatos, Calif., company that also monitors file-swapping networks for movie studios and record labels. |
While many websites that offered illegal material have been taken down, the real question that remains is how to deal with illegal software on file-sharing networks such as KaZaA. Asia-Pacific's piracy rate stood at 55% last year, according to the article.
Source: News.com
