Costa Rica: 'Do not risk your business using pirated software'

Business Software Alliance (BSA), a non-profit entity created by the computer industry against piracy in the world, informs that since its campaign 'Do not risk your business using pirated software', there has been auditing companies in Costa Rica. As a result, Rodolfo Barrera (BSA lawyer) explains that eight out of ten companies in the country use illegal software.

Officers and officials from the IP Office, as well as specialist from BSA have been involved in the searches.
Barrera adds that those companies using pirated software have been fined $20,000 to $ 50,000. He says that “the penalties depend on the firm size and type of software they are using. It also provides an account of the program and the profits they might have for their illegal use”. While the latter is the normal – account of profit, I am not quite sure about the size of the company. In fact, I cannot see why.
In other words, does it count that I do not have extra cash to buy a CD and so I get a pirated one? Should the law penalise harder Bill Gates if he does the same?

In the same news, the newspaper informs that according to a BSA report, Guatemala ranks first in software piracy (81%) in Central America but third together with Bolivia in Latin America. Venezuela (86%) is in the first place followed by Paraguay (83%).