A frantic business owner gets on the phone to his lawyer — "A random police raid at my company uncovered pirated software," he says.

The lawyer keeps his cool. "Well, I've been telling you for a long time that you better put things in order. Now, you're going to have to pay a few million crowns" and face other sanctions, the lawyer says. "But don't worry — as a friend, I'm not going to charge you for my legal services."

Sound like a bad joke? Maybe. But for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) — a global organization that promotes the legal use of software — this scenario is a part of an anti-software piracy campaign the group launched this month to combat what it calls the dangerously high use of illegal software among companies.

Throughout March, the BSA has played this dialogue on radio stations throughout the country. It also plans to contact as many as 10,000 companies to warn them about the risk of using pirated software.

"We have launched the campaign [to address] the high rate of pirated software use among small and midsize companies," says Jan Hlaváč, spokesman for the BSA in the Czech Republic. "There are still many people in this country using illegal software. So, they are in fact thieves."

Although pirated software use has decreased here in the past two years, a recent study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that about 41 percent of software used by Czech businesses and households is pirated. This is above the European Union average of 35 percent.

Hlaváč says that small and midsize companies are the usual culprits.

"Whether they do it on purpose or not, those companies tend to most often violate copyrights," Hlaváč says.

BSA is hoping its campaign, which is also running in other EU countries, will show companies that using legal software is not only more ethical but more effective, says Katja Strauch, information officer for the BSA's headquarters in London.

"We believe the most effective way to deter the use of illegal software is to educate users about the benefits of proper software management," she explains.

In this country, the BSA has already reached out to thousands of companies via mail, over the phone and in person.

The threat within

According to Czech law, companies found using pirated software can be fined up to 5 million Kč ($210,000). Information technology and other managers within a company can also face legal action if they were aware the business was using illegal software.

The most common fines are in the area of a few hundred thousand crowns, but perpetrators can also face jail time.

The police have official authority to investigate illegal software use in this country. BSA's Hlaváč points out that about 90 percent of investigations are triggered by frustrated employees or competitors who file reports with authorities.

"There are even cases when employees who are very familiar with the company help point out computers with illegal software," Hlaváč says.

Police have investigated 1,184 cases involving software piracy or copied audio and video CDs during the past two years.

The arguments against pirated software are not only ethical, but also economical, according to Hlaváč.

"If the rate of pirated software dropped by another 10 percent, within four years 2,900 new jobs in the IT sector would be created, state budget revenues would increase by 2.3 billion Kč, and the country's GDP would grow by 22.7 billion Kč," he says.

A recent study by IDC supports his claim that freeing the market of pirated software would boost economic growth.

Microsoft joins the fight

BSA isn't the only one taking on illegal software. Microsoft has launched a similar initiative against pirated Windows applications, the Microsoft-created operating system, in six countries, the Czech Republic among them.

Microsoft has developed an alert for Windows users in six languages, including Czech, that invites users to test whether their software is legal.

"We've selected two countries with a high rate of software piracy [China, Taiwan], two countries with a middle rate [Poland, Czech Republic] and two countries with a low rate [Norway, Denmark]," says Tomáš Koška, director of the Windows Client division at Microsoft Czech Republic and Slovakia. "We've already checked the software of 250,000 users and another 1.5 million are ahead of us."

One of the main arguments given for the rise of pirated software is that many software packages are too expensive. BSA's Hlaváč rejects this argument.