Monday, August 12, 2002		Feature

Piracy worries India…
Tribune News Service

SOFTWARE piracy is one of the biggest concerns of many global and local software vendors in India. Piracy leads to users using the intellectual property of the vendors without paying commensurating price. According to IDC estimates, the money lost in 2001 from pirated software is estimated to be close to $ 245 million in India, which is almost half of the legal packaged software market.

This loss in revenue accrues from different types of piracy like unauthorised copying and selling, unauthorized bundling with hardware, unauthorized internet sales & download, end user piracy, client/ server piracy and enterprise piracy. In the year 2001, the loss in revenue was mainly due to piracy by unauthorised copying and selling and unauthorised bundling with hardware, which together accounted for 65 per cent of the total loss. In unauthorised copying and selling, a software application is simply replicated into large batches of CDs and then distributed through an underground distribution network at a fraction of price. Similar procedure is followed in unauthorised bundling with hardware. In this case a software application is copied and installed onto the assembled machines and is sold along with the hardware. "These two types of piracy is easier to detect and prevent than other forms like end user piracy but is still a major contributor to the revenue loss. This is due to a lack of proper legal framework and implementation of existing laws. There is also little realisation of the intensity of piracy problem among enforcement agencies and hence there is no drive to curb it. As a result piracy is still very rampant in India" according to an IDC study. 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 and non-governmental associations, channel partners, PC assemblers, etc.

… and the USA THE USA is concerned about levels of copyright piracy in Russia, second in the world only to China, especially as some military factories are involved in production, the US embassy said. U.S. ambassador Alexander Vershbow wrote in June to Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, whose ministry is the licensing authority for Russian CD and DVD manufacturers, asking for help in investigating plants suspected of producing illegal discs. The Embassy released details of the letter after Russian media reports. The US letter says Russia is a "significant exporter" of pirated products, frequently ranked second only to China by industry experts. ussia is one of 15 countries on the USA 2002 Priority Watch List of states believed to have serious problems with intellectual property protection. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a US pressure group, estimates that Russia's total trade losses from copyright piracy in 2001 were $ 849 million, up from $ 637 million in 2000. According to the IIPA, piracy in Russia accounts for 64 per cent of recorded music, 80 per cent of films, 83 per cent of business software and 90 per cent of entertainment software circulating in the country.