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For computer software firms, software piracy represents a large loss of potential revenues. In response to the trade in pirated software, computer software companies banded together into an international political lobby organisation, the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Individual charter versions of the BSA were established in countries around the world to press governments to tighten intellectual property legislation and pursue anti-piracy measures. By the mid-1990s, Asia had become one of the largest regions for pirated computer software and Hong Kong was the epicentre of the regional trade in piracy. However, Hong Kong was also the commercial and financial hub for Asia and the major computer hardware distribution centre for both China and the region. This made Hong Kong an important market for the BSA's member companies. For the BSA in Hong Kong, the task they were presented with was to clamp down on software piracy and illegal software distribution while simultaneously increasing the size of the local software market. How could they encourage notoriously protectionist Asian governments to open their computer sectors to free and transparent trade while simultaneously getting them to strike hard at illicit trade that threatened mostly large US firms?