Internet software piracy growing at an alarming rate--Hardee

The high-tech IT industry is driving the information revolution, which is the

cornerstone of the new economy. While the Internet has made a lot of things

easier for all of us, it has also given a chance to share different kind of

information and it becomes a concern if that information is related to piracy.

Business Software Alliance (BSA) is one such organization fighting against not

only Internet related piracy but piracy related with software in general. Zia

Askari of CNS spoke to Jeffrey J Hardee, VP and Regional Director (Asia

Pacific), BSA Singapore about the general software piracy scenario and what does

that mean for a country like India. He was in Hyderabad to deliver a keynote

address at the International conference on innovation and IPR strategy.

Q1) What is the global scenario for piracy of software and where do you

stand?


BSA is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal online

world. We are the voice of the world’s software, hardware and Internet sector

before governments and with consumers in the international marketplace. BSA

members represent the fastest growing industries in the world. We educate

computer users on software copyrights and cyber security; advocate public policy

that foster innovation and expands trade opportunities and also fight software

piracy. Established in 1988, BSA has programs in 65 countries worldwide.

During the recent years piracy rates have come up very strongly all over the

world and it has become a menacing problem for most of the software developing

companies. Piracy rates have grown by 25 percent in US, 92 percent in China, 53

percent in Taiwan, 37 percent in Japan and 70 percent in India. As a result of

that, piracy of software products caused a total loss of more than $ 10 billion

during the year 2001 and out of this the Asia pacific region accounted for about

$ seven billion and the US about $ 1.8 billion. India stood at $ 365 million for

the same period for loses.

What is the impact of piracy on the software sector?



Software piracy casts a bad shadow on the IT industry as a whole because

right from the R&D, companies spend a lot of money to come up with a

software package or product and if someone copies that product in a short time

and also drastically reduces the price of the same product then it’s a bad

situation for the original manufacturer.

It actually retards the new software development activities to quite an

extent and for a country like India its necessary to have more companies working

on the core software development part. So it is essential for India Inc. to

create an effective environment for new software development for big as well as

small companies.

What are the different kind of piracy practices prevalent today?



Primarily there are three types of piracy problems that we have identified

so far—end user piracy, distribution channel piracy and the growing Internet

piracy. End user piracy refers to the licensing of the systems software and it

is very common over here to find a large number of systems copying software from

a single system. Even in SME segment, companies freely install software

officially on one system and then use the same for a number of systems.

Distribution channel piracy refers to the illegal distribution of computer

peripherals or the software and it is growing at an alarming rate in India. Last

year BSA conducted raids in association with NASSCOM at a number of places and

particularly at Nehru Place we seized more than 3,800 pirated disks and the

total worth of that was about $ 3.2 million. In another raid shortly after that

we seized a huge warehouse full of software products and destroyed it. So there

are a lot of people involved in the business of software piracy and we have to

stop them.

The Internet line of software piracy is growing at an alarming rate. Access

to newer technologies like P2P is making it easier for common people to obtain

software programs over the Internet, moreover detection of piracy is very

difficult in the case of Internet. Software pirates over the Internet are using

a number of channels for piracy common amongst them is - e-mail, FTP, IRC

Channel and news groups.

How can we cope with this piracy problem?


NASSCOM is an organization in India, which has come forward in a big way and we

are teaming up with them to find the culprits who are involved in the piracy

business and then take appropriate legal action against them. We need to have a

proper legal infrastructure in place to punish those who are caught in the

piracy business. A proper public policy with protection of temporary copies of

software is necessary. ISP liability should also be there, notices and take down

of net-addresses should be done for the unauthorized websites.

How do you foresee changes being made in India and what are the measures

that BSA is going to take against piracy over here?



We need to have enforcement best practices in place, streamlining the

enforcement procedure with deterring sentences to the culprits. We are about to

have our enforcement cells in association with NASSCOM in each of the metro

cities like Delhi Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai and Bangalore and a hotline number

will be given for informing the cell about any kind of piracy act. Stern action

will be taken against those who are found playing with the law.

BSA and NASSCOM have taken civil action against five companies in India and

more action will be taken against those who are found using illegal software or

in the business of piracy. I am very happy to tell you that we sent 34 take down

notices to different illegal websites and of that 30 websites have already been

taken down.

Tracking piracy is not an easy task Government and the industry will have to

work hand in hand to find solution to these piracy problems.