Who will tame the software pirates

The battle against

software piracy is not new. In spite of a little headway, the

apparent losses are huge. An estimate points out, that software

companies' total loss stands at around $50 billion on an annual rate.

For software giant Microsoft, India is one of the focused markets,

which generates more than Rs 3,500 crore as an annual revenue for the

company. "In addition to Microsoft, other software vendors like

AutoCad, Adobe and Coral often come up with investigation campaigns

in order to curb software piracy," said Vinay K Bansal, Director

of Synapse (a delhi-based software reseller). Posed as a market

research firm, these vendors usually call up the SMBs to extract

information and match it with the licenses sold to that business.

However, the software

major does not want to leave any stone unturned and is leading

various programs to check counterfeit software products in India.

“Microsoft is

maintaining partnerships with various channel associations, such as

Confed-ITA, PCAIT, TAIT, COMPASS and SITA to curb piracy. We aim to

drive education and awareness to the reseller community on the

threats from the usage of pirated software in companies, governments

and individuals, the legal and financial risks of copying,

distributing and selling pirated software, as well as the economic

benefits from reduction of piracy in terms of legitimate taxes and

jobs," said Anil Varghese, Director-Genuine Software

Initiatives, Microsoft India, in an interaction with The DQ Week.

The

software major is optimistic that partners could enhance their

understanding and deliver the value of original software to their

customers.

A recent report, 'The

Economic Benefits of Reducing Software Piracy,' by IDC and Business

Software Alliance (BSA) suggests that a reduction of 10 percent in

software piracy rates from the current 65 percent by over the next

four years could create more than 59,728 high-tech jobs, and nearly

$512 million in new taxes by 2013. Keshav S Dhakad, Chairman, BSA

Committee India, said, “The study clearly demonstrates a slow pace

in piracy reduction that affects the overall economic growth of the

IT industry in India, de-disincentives local product companies'

innovative efforts, undermines government's ability to collect

legitimate taxes from legitimate software sales and fuels organized

criminal activity linked with piracy.”