On The Third Hand

The last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of call centers operating out of the Philippines. Adrian S Cristobal Jr director general of IPO Philippines has called it the fastest growing industry in the country.

“The call center industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, along with the information technology industry,” said Cristobal. “Call centers’ strict compliance to IPR [intellectual property rights] is important if we want to expand and become the IT [information technology] hub of the region.”

Note the reference to intellectual property rights. Not related to the business of providing help/complaint line services you say. Not so.

Software piracy is so pervasive even the call centers are running on pirated software.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) here has urged members of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) to use only licensed software in their computers.

IPO director general Adrian S Cristobal Jr reiterated this call to CCAP following its members’ poor compliance with an agreement that contact centers will conduct software audits of all their computer systems as part of their corporate social responsibility and industry self-regulation.

Under the agreement, (signed eleven months ago) CCAP members were to conduct software audits of all their computer systems. At present only two of the hundreds of centers have complied with the agreement. Why such poor response? One clue is in the article, (I should say not contained). No mention is made of enforcement efforts. Granted, an editor may have done a slash and burn on the authors original copy. Or maybe not, impossible to tell. But I can relate a small but representive example of the prevailing attitude here.

This morning while running a few errands I happened upon a makeshift stall (built of used 2x2 boards and covered by a corrugated tin roof) selling pirated CD’s, Video CD’s and DVD’s. It has been there for a few weeks but other than the location (which I’ll get to in a second) I hadn’t paid much attention to it. Because it’s one of dozens located within a 2 mile radius of the house only it’s location makes it stand out.

The stall is setup inside of City Hall’s parking lot and within 50 feet of the front door. But wait, there’s more. The kids have been on a “Robot rant” this week. The movie Robots opened Wednesday and that has led to hearing the title in my sleep. As I passed by the stall this morning a DVD of Robots was front and center (even pirates understand product placement). Out of curiosity I picked it up and was admiring the quality of the copy, (chapters, extra features, all zone coding, the works) All for the low, low price of $1.50 US.

Are you still waiting? There is still more you know.

As I was looking, out strolls the Mayor of this fine city. He also did a little “home entertainment” shopping. He looked at the Robots DVD, and a couple other American movies. He finally selected a local “copy” of a Filipino movie and went about his business.

Now if asked, you know why enforcement of intellectual property rights is a joke here. Even at the lowest, and easiest level of compliance a blind eye is turned. Including “Mayor Pirate.” And no, before you ask. I didn’t buy the Robots DVD. The kids and I stuffed our faces with buttered popcorn at the local cinema.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity