53 .ro gov stabs own software industry in the back

Did anybody think that Romania doesn’t have enough bureaucracy as it is? Or perhaps that the Romanian IT industry has been too lively and expansive lately and needs to be toned down a bit? If there are people who thought that, they can rest easy now, it’s being worked on.

The Romanian lawmakers have released a piss-poor hack of a law that is so riddled with stupid and confusing regulations that it threatens to send the entire Romanian IT into a frenzy of despair.

1. Enter the lawmakers

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
—Robert J. Hanlon

The Romanian Government has recently passed Ordinance 25 of 2006 [Romanian], a law which, among other things, makes it mandatory for anybody (company or person) to register any code they produce or sell, with ORDA (The Romanian Office for Copy Rights), in the so called “National Registry of Computer Programs” (RNPC). The law is effective as of March 1st, 2006.

Here’s a word for word quote:

Article 17. - (1) Registration or, depeding upon the case, subscribing to the National Registry for Computer Programs is mandatory for:
1. Authorized physical persons or juridical personas who are involved in any of the following activities on Romanian territory:
a) creation of computer programs;
b) importing of computer programs;
c) distribution of computer programs;
d) renting of computer programs;
e) selling of computer programs;

(The Romanian version even has grammatical errors, as icing on the cake. :right:)

Granted, “distribution” is defined as “selling the original or copies for the purpose of commercialization”. “Creation”, however, stands as it is.

So, what exactly is a “computer program”? Let’s turn to the up-to-date version of Law 8 of 1996 [Romanian], which deals with copyright (being THE copyright law in Romania) and is supposed to clear this issue:

Article 72. - (1) Through this law, protection of computer programs covers any form of expressing a program, applications and operating systems, expressed in any kind of language, be it source-code or object-code, the preparing material used for creation, as well as manuals.

Well, I hope it’s clear for you, because it sure isn’t for me.

2. Queue in the confusion

After reading these two laws we come out none the wiser about which computer programs should be registered. Apparently, all code produced on Romanian territory falls under the terms of this law, but surely that cannot be, because it would be too dumb to consider.

Note: For those interested, here is a good overview, in Romanian, of the implications.

Let’s go over some of the most entertaining parts of the Ordinance:

• Is any code writer who is legally registered for commercial activity supposed to start registering any piece of code they ever produce? Reports in the Romanian IT community at large already tell of people who were told they have to register the code they used for their own website, code they haven’t sold or even showed to anybody else.
• The implications of Internet jurisdiction alone are a nightmare to unravel. Am I still required to register my code if it resides on foreign servers? Apparently, yes. The ORDA officials are reportedly in the dark themselves about these finer points of interpretation, and until anybody tells them otherwise they seem to recommend registration for anything that moves.
• Article 42 clearly states that you are to be fined if you “store” (?) computer programs in any other place except the one mentioned in the accompanying certificate. Obviously, working remotely or taking work home is something that should be punished, in the minds of the lawmakers.
• It would be very funny (for a detached spectator) if I would have to register the code I’m writing for the open-source projects I’m involved with. Actually, I have code examples on this very site, right? I have JavaScript code running. And they’re not registered! Yikes, I’m already a criminal!
• Since exact definitions and regulations surrounding the entire registration process are non-existant, it’s perfectly OK for anybody to work around this law by submitting to ORDA encrypted files containing garbage. They’re not supposed to also supply the means to decrypt them, at least for now. Or, they could put in there some pseudo-code or generic schematics, just to be covered in the worst case scenario. Why can they get away with this? Because you’re not supposed to actively maintain a recent copy in the registry (which would’ve been such a humongous challenge that even the governants figured it out.) So I can submit a copy at any stage of the software creation process. If I choose to do so on day 1, that’s that. So if it’s so easy to circumvent the law, why make it a law at all?
• Producing any kind of CD or DVD other than in an authorized industry-grade facility is now forbidden. This regulation effectively bankrupts [Romanian] all the small and medium sized producers of audio CD’s and DVD’s who cannot afford the services of industry-grade CD/DVD producers, of which there is only one (1) company in Romania and another one in neighbouring Hungary. The cost of their services are prohibitive for small producers, especially those dealing with traditional Romanian folk music, who until now have survived by releasing only small amounts of media at a time. Let’s not forget all the small software firms who used to burn their own media. Isn’t it nice that 10 odd years of technological progress have given us affordable DVD burners, only to be now forbidden from using it?

3. Any software maker, a criminal

Granted, I’m being late in writing about this. The law was published on January 30th, but not many people maintain the (expensive) subscription to the official Government publication (Monitorul Oficial). There are rumors stating that ORDA itself published Ordinance 25 on their website late, but I have no way of verifying that. As it is, news about it broke in the media only a few days ago, which is when the larger part of the software-producing community in Romania first found out about it.

The freelancers and small companies have most likely found out about this too late. I can probably finger any of my aquintances in the field at this point and I stand a very good chance of finding someone who is still not legit it this respect. The fines for each case (not cumulated) can reach 10,000 RON (over 3,300 USD), a hefty sum for small software makers, especially around this parts of the world.

You’d think that larger companies are safe from this. Let’s see: reports in the media count over 3,000 software companies in Romania, yet only about 1,800 companies have about 7,000 computer programs registered with ORDA. It stands to reason that a large number of companies are therefore at this very moment breaking the law.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking those 7,000 computer programs were registered in the first months of this year, since the law was passed. The RNPC exists for a number of years, yet until 2006 registration was not mandatory. It was just a service, provided by ORDA for free, for those who wanted to have legal proof, should they ever need it, to protect their code copyright. The same could be achieved through law firms, but not for free, naturally.

As it is, most of those programs have most likely been already registered in the previous years and their creators have now found themselves catching a happy break. …Unless, they registered the programs more than a year ago, in which case the certificate they obtained is now void. And the registration itself, although it was supposed to be valid forever, will now only last until January 2007 if it was done before the passing of this law.

So most software makers will need to start the procedures for registration and certification all over again, and quickly. A nice task, on a massive scale, which should provide a nice challenge for the “swift” and “efficient” bureaucracy of Romania, which the natives all know and love.

4. Damn the criminals to the eternal fires of hell

So, we’ve established that a large part of the software industry in Romania is at this very moment not acting legally. What’s going to happen to them?

I’m glad you asked. They’re going to be fined and prosecuted for breaking the copyright laws. During the investigation and trial, all their certificates (issued by ORDA for each computer program) will be suspended, and with them all legal business regarding the affected computer programs.

Should they be found guilty, the certificates will be revoked. Furthermore, those persons will never be allowed to receive certificates ever again, neither will anybody who associates with them in a company, nor will locations where such breaking of the law occured!

In other words, eternal damnation for the ones caught. So here’s a hot tip for you:

Tip: Do you have unpleasant competition in software making or selling in Romania? Turn them in to ORDA today, and you stand a great chance of throwing them out of the business forever!

5. What purpose does this serve?

According to the Government itself, this law is supposed to combat piracy [Romanian] in the music and software industry.

Call me dense, but I don’t see how imposing additional paper work and scare tactics with the already legitimate software makers will help curve piracy. Who will comply with the new regulations? Definitely not the pirates. They were already acting outside the law as per the old copyright law (Law 8/1996). There’s nothing particularly new to them in Ordinance 25.

Trying to tackle criminals (defined as “persons who don’t obey the law”) by passing more laws has got to be one the most stupid activities that a government can entertain.

There are a wide number of things that could be done with actual results instead of passing stupid laws.

• There are well known places all over Bucharest where you can go and buy pirated music and software CD’s from street carts and shady individuals. Some of them are located in the most populated and circulated city zones. Wanna bet they’re still there today?
• The governants could take some bloody beginner’s courses in general computer knowledge. Perhaps they’ll manage to at least define a “computer program” next time.
• The population at large could be educated via mass-media to learn that free (as in beer) software is not a God-given right, and if they cannot afford commercial software (many of them don’t) there are free, abundant alternatives. Brazil turned to Linux on a massive scale. Taiwan managed to convince Microsoft to offer Windows copies at greatly reduced prices. Why can’t we?
• They could actually make an effort to raise the standard of living. If you want people to pay for software, they’d better have some money left after they finish eating and clothing themselves. If you’re curious, here’s an example of how much money a Romanian IT worker makes and spends, a member of a priviledged class, which is supposed to live better than three quarters of Romanians.

6. Odds and ends

If you need a bitter laugh after all this, go to the ORDA registry and search for “windows” or “office” in the text field marked “Nume program”. Turns out that Microsoft is quite the law-obedient company. It also turns out that they registered some of their Windows and Office applications as “entertainment applications”.

If you want me to be more blunt, here: don’t expect the big companies present in Romania to care about this law. Big companies have the resources to cope even with the half-assed regulations in this silly Ordinance. And even if they didn’t, ORDA is rumored to never raid the offices of the big players. They are careful to send advance notice when they come by.