As part of the campaign, the BSA will pay visits to a randomly selected 600 small and medium-size enterprises in five regions in Hungary over the next 10–12 months. Simonkovics added that during the campaign, the BSA will stress the benefits of legal software use rather than hand out penalties, as the alliance believes in a "positive, educational approach," with experience showing that long-term results can be reached only by an non-aggressive campaign.
The software license piracy rate is around 60% in Hungary's SME sector, compared to the nationwide average of 44%. That rate is the second best in the CEE region after the Czech Republic, but is unique in Europe in that it has shown an increase of two percentage points since EU accession, countering declines elsewhere in the continent, said Simonkovics.
The campaign will also include correspondence with over 10,000 firms in the SME sector in Hungary, as well as professional conferences and lectures co-organized with industrial and trade chambers.
The BSA's aim in Hungary is to reach the average western European piracy rate of 35%, although the association acknowledges the time-consuming nature of the project. In case the program proves successful, the BSA said it would repeat the visits and free consultation with companies.
