Leghari for enforcement of copyright laws
KARACHI – Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Federal Minister for IT and Telecom, said on April 23 that strict enforcement of copyright laws a must to encourage local software developers
“Selling of software CDs without proper licensing was a violation of copyright regulations, but without a strict enforcement of copyright laws, there were almost no incentive for the software developers to develop new software,” he said in a statement.
“Along with the strict enforcement of copyright laws, government is responsible to provide some alternate solutions for the people and organisations who cannot afford the expensive proprietary software,” he admitted.
He recalled in 2005 when the WTO regime would come into force it would become mandatory for member countries to use licensed software.
“This will exert a profound impact not only on the expenditure of the general software users but also incur a great burden on the national exchequer,” he added.
The minister announced to launch a pilot project worth Rs37 million for the training of government servants and private individuals on Open Source software.
“The Ministry of Information Technology would sponsor the project under which training would be imparted to 4000 employees in Linux operating system, Open Office & other application software while 200 system administrators will also be trained on Linux,” he explained.
He said training programme would be arranged in Islamabad, all provincial headquarters and at Muzaffarabad (AKJ). The duration of the course would be approximately five weeks for end users and eight weeks for the system administrators. Half of the intake in these courses would be from private sector while the rest would be from government departments.
He said government servants with pay scale BPS-5 and above were eligible for the training to be provided free of charge. The participants from private sector would pay 10 per cent of the fees while the rest would be paid by the government.
The only eligibility requirement for the participants of training is matriculation level education for end users training on open source software. For systems software training, the minimum requirement is graduation with one to two years experience of working on computers.
The minister pledged that on successful implementation of the project and depending upon the response and interest of the government servants and public, a major follow-up project of training would also be launched.
Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB), a subsidiary of the ministry, will organise, arrange and monitor the to ensure proper quality of training.
He maintained Pakistan was not the only promoting the use of Open Source software.
“The promotion of Open Source software as an alternate to the proprietary software would bring massive revenue savings for the country besides providing alternate software to the common man who cannot afford expensive proprietary softwares,” he added.
Source: The News
Date:4/24/2004
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