ICDL GCC Foundation, the governing body and certification authority of the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) program in the Gulf region supports the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and endorses BSA’s Code of Ethics for managing the use of intellectual property in the ICDL training and testing environment.
This initiative includes the endorsement of BSA’s eight-point code of ethics to be adopted by all ICDL accredited training and testing centres affiliated with the ICDL program, both in the public and private sectors. Centres that agree to comply with the code will be issued a compliance certificate from BSA while those failing to sign the code will risk invalidation of their ICDL accreditation from the ICDL GCC Foundation.
Anti-piracy efforts of both BSA and ICDL in partnership with regional governments have contributed to bringing down software piracy levels in the Middle East, which according to a recent IDC Global Software Piracy Study, declined by one percentage point to 57% in 2005, at a time when global software piracy rates remained unchanged at 35%.
Other areas of cooperation between ICDL and BSA includes working together on other policy initiatives and awareness campaigns that will further promote copyright protection and cyber safety among organizations and individuals to help further reduce the rate of software piracy.
International Computer Driving License (ICDL), is an internationally recognized computer proficiency standard that is owned by the The European Computer Driving License Foundation (ECDL) and introduced by the UNESCO’s Cairo Office (UCO) for Arab states in 2001, is gaining increasing acceptance in the Middle East, with several governments adopting and prescribing it to their employees.
The ICDL program exists in over 143 countries, and is offered in 42 languages, including Arabic. The programs offered are all based on one standard syllabus and question set. There are more than 27,000 centres worldwide, above 7 mln candidates (500,000 candidates in the GCC region alone), more than 2 mln issued certificates and over 25 mln exams have been taken globally since the launch of the program year 1997.
