High Level of Software Piracy in Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, only three out of ten actually buy legal software to be used in computers in the home or business. This according to investigation by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), headed by the International Data Corporation, who measures "pirating" indexes all over the world.

Costa Rica is one of those countries on the alliance's list, with estimates of as must as high as 70% in pirating of computer programs, videos and games.

This number means an estimated loss us$16 million to local distributors and vendors.

Comparing Costa Rica to it's neighbours, El Salvador and Nicaragua have a 80% pirating rate and Guatemala is at 78%.

For years, the U.S. copyright industries viewed Costa Rica as a country having adequate copyright laws and an enforcement system that actually worked, despite relatively high levels of piracy in the market.

However, penal code amendments made in early 1998, anticipated to expedite criminal processing, have unfortunately backfired because sufficient funding was not devoted to support prosecutors.

As a result, very little criminal enforcement is occurring now in Costa Rica. Even the President of the Supreme Court has urged that the situation must be turned around in order to restore confidence to the legal system.

The main problem affecting the business software industry in Costa Rica is poor enforcement, particularly in San José.

In the past year, there have been several disturbing events in Costa Rica which have adversely affected effective software enforcement. First, the lack of resources devoted to fighting piracy has had an adverse effect on the U.S. software industry.

Nowhere is this more evident than in San José, where the prosecutor's office has few resources through which software piracy cases are handled. More problematic is the fact that, under the criminal procedural code, once a complaint is filed, the prosecutor must refer the case to Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) for investigation.

Within the OIJ, software piracy cases are then referred to a sub-unit charged with investigating all criminal cases anywhere in Costa Rica where computers are involved. This sub-unit consists of a small group. Once they have completed their investigation, they must refer the case back to the prosecutor, who then requests a search and seizure order.