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Workshop on the theme â€œInformation and communication technologies and intellectual propertyâ€ takes place

27 April 2009 11:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva â€“ APA. Workshop on the theme â€œInformation and communication technologies and intellectual propertyâ€ has been organized by the Copyright Agency and Microsoft company today, APA reports. Chairman of the Copyright Agency Kamran Imanov said software piracy had recently increased in the world. According to the European Commissionâ€™s calculations, every year â‚¬300 billion of the annual income is lost due to software piracy in the world. The chairman of the agency said the figure had recently risen in Azerbaijan, too. Software piracy has reached 90 percent in the country. Imanov said action plan had been prepared together with the office of Microsoft in Azerbaijan. He said the draft law on â€œEnsuring intellectual property rights and combating piracyâ€ should be adopted soon, the agencyâ€™s proposals on amendments and annexes to the Code of Administrative Offences, Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure should be considered. Imanov said reforms were being carried out in the Copyright Agency. Center of Intellectual Property will be established in the agency to strengthen struggle against piracy, including software piracy.
Kamran Imanov said intellectual property facilities were being registered.
Representative of Microsoft Corporation in Azerbaijan Teymour Akhundov said the company started its activity in Azerbaijan three years ago. He acknowledged that they faced with problems in the protection of intellectual property. Akhundov said only three of 48 banks currently operated in Azerbaijan used legal computer programs. He said Microsoft was ready to support the government of Azerbaijan in prevention of computer piracy.

Chief of the information society department of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Rufat Gulmammadov proposed to reduce prices of Microsoft-licensed software for prevention of computer piracy. â€œThe licensed software costs about 300 AZN. The pirate software is 10-15 AZN. Therefore lower-income social stratums prefer to use pirate software. It will be better if Microsoft Corporation sets special prices for the lower-income social groupsâ€.