KARACHI Sept 28: A computer vendor having his business on I.I. Chundrigar Road was arrested on Friday allegedly for copying pirated software on new machines. Police also seized 259 illegal CDs and a personal computer with the pirated software installed in it.

“A criminal case has been registered against the vendor for violating the Copyright Law as part of the countrywide crackdown on software pirates,” said a Business Software Alliance (BSA) spokesman on Friday.

He said the vendor had ignored the BSA warnings of such an action if he did not stop his illegal business. The spokesman said people indulged in software piracy should refrain from continuing with their illegal business to avoid similar action.

He said BSA was operating in 80 countries around the world and helping the law-enforcement agencies to book and arrest software pirates after registering criminal cases against them. Users of pirated software might also face action, he warned.

On the BSA initiative, police, FIA and Customs have been confiscating huge stocks of illegal CDs in raids on firms, vendors and outlets being conducted in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad and Peshawar.

The spokesman pointed out that software was an intellectual property like any other physical property and its piracy was recognized as a criminal act. “The offence is punishable under the copyright law which may be up to three years imprisonment, Rs100,000 fine and seizure of the equipment involved,” he said.

The BSA spokesman maintained that pirated software suppliers and users in Pakistan were causing damage to the country’s IT industry, discouraging computer programmers and causing a massive loss to the national exchequer.