Kenya: Imposters Threaten Cyber-Cafe Owners With Prosecution
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
19 March 2008
Posted to the web 19 March 2008
Kui Kinyanjui
Imposters have forced a number of cyber-cafes in the Embu, Mwea and Meru areas to shut down due to fear of prosecution by software company Microsoft.
Groups of unidentified people visited the operators and threatened them with closure unless they paid a Sh50,000 fee to stay in business.
Business Daily has since established that the groups are not part of an official crackdown on pirated software being run by Microsoft in conjunction with the Kenya Copyright Board (KCB).
"We have yet to reach those areas although they are on our agenda. I would however, urge all users to conform and buy legal software," said a source at the Office of the Attorney-General, under which the KCB falls.
He said the enforcement team would give a small grace period for compliance before taking action.
Last year, Microsoft embarked on an aggressive push to halt the use of pirated software in the country by cracking down on vendors and cyber-cafes.
Kenya has one of the highest piracy rates in the world, with over eight in 10 computers in the country running on pirated software.KCB and Microsoft started raiding cyber cafes in Nairobi in October, netting over 50 computers containing unlicensed versions of Microsoft software in early raids.
At the time, KCB said the owners of the raided Internet Cafes would face charges of copyright infringement, prompting cyber-cafe owners to either buy genuine Microsoft software or re-evaluate their software use.
Many opted to install open source solutions, which are generally free and do not attract licence fees like Microsoft products, which can cost about Sh4,000 per computer.
"Our businesses have come to a standstill. We have since decided to look for Linux offerings since we heard about the threat and we want more leniency from them," said Philip Majanga, the owner of an Internet bureau in Mwea.
Mr Majanga said several computer-dependant businesses including computer schools had closed down since threats of a crackdown started hitting the small towns.
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But signs that the crackdown may have lost its impetus may be emerging, after sources in the Office of the Attorney-General said they were cash-strapped.
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