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Piracy still
prevalent in India
In general, the developing economies of have higher rates of piracy. The Indian track record is relatively better as compared to other countries in the Asia Pacific region like, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc. In India, the major driving forces for the use of pirated software are the lack of legal framework, "taken-for-granted" approach, huge availability of pirated software, high software pricing, high usage of assembled PC and enormous financial benefits. On the other hand there are factors such as increased activities from the vendors, industry associations and government and growing user's awareness etc that are inhibiting piracy in India though it is still at a very high level. Most of the Independent Software (ISVs) like Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe etc fight individually as well as through industry alliances such as the BSA & NASSCOM, to combat the problem of piracy. Some of these vendors have a major market share but are still finding it difficult to make people pay for them. This situation is predominant in the areas of system level software, authoring applications, accounting and HR applications, office applications, anti-virus tools and utilities, etc. In India, the major problem is that a large portion of the PC users are not aware of intellectual property (IPR) laws and think it is legal to copy software. In India, IPR of computer software is covered under the provisions of Indian Copyright Act 1957. This Law was amended in 1995 to make it stronger than earlier. Despite having a strict legislation in place piracy has continued unabated. In India the laws against anti-piracy are well written but they need to be consistent, effective and properly implemented at all levels from both private and government agencies. "To reduce software piracy continuous education and enforcement efforts from the various industry players and government is required. There is a need for increased governmental involvement, end users education, specific piracy law formulation and making prices more competitive" according to Kapil Dev Singh, head - software and services, IDC India. These findings are a
part of a recently concluded study by IDC on the status of software
piracy in India by meeting the key software vendors, various
governmental & non-governmental associations, channel partners, PC
assemblers, etc. IDC provides market
research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology customers
around the world in the field of IT and Telecommunication. IDC (India)
is the country's most comprehensive, dependable and respected resource
for market research and consulting in the field of IT& Telecom. With
its head office at Gurgaon, the company has branches at Bangalore,
Chennai, and Mumbai. |
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SOFTWARE
piracy is a growing problem among businesses internationally as well as
in India. Even with a decrease in the software piracy during the last 10
years, it is still high in India. According to IDC estimates, the money
lost in 2001 from pirated software is estimated to be close to $ 245
million, which is almost half of the legal packaged software market.
This revenue loss was mainly due to piracy by unauthorised copying and
selling and unauthorised bundling with hardware.