Software piracy in developing countries is a serious issue. According to a report from the Business Software Alliance trade group, the value of software pirated across the globe in 2010 was $59 billion. Out of this, the value of pirated software used in emerging markets was over $31.9 billion.
While more than half of all the PC shipments in the world were made to emerging markets in 2010, the share of emerging markets in global PC software sales was merely 19 percent. The average piracy rate among the developing countries was 69 percent as compared to 26 percent in developed economies.
Many experts believe that the problem of piracy exists because laws related to protecting intellectual property are not enforced properly in the developing nations. According to the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, governments have to fulfill their obligations by implementing laws and regulations that prevent infringement of intellectual property rights.
Let's look at the problem in a different dimension. For a start, consider the following statistics related to various countries in both the developed and emerging categories:
From the stats, it's evident that income levels have a direct impact on piracy rates. The low-income level in some of the developing countries is the foremost reason for high piracy rates. Hence, in the case of these emerging economies, the issue to target is the affordability of the software, as opposed to implementation and enforcement of piracy laws.
Assuming piracy laws are made stricter in developing countries and enforcement is improved, the situation is likely to get worse. IT is one of the most booming sectors in some of the developing countries, and software plays a key role in the development of the economy. With laws against piracy, many small businesses (that cannot afford licensed software) will be deprived of valuable applications that they use in everyday business. Students are also likely to suffer as they lose access to valuable educational programs and resources.
It's unlikely that software companies will gain anything out of enforcing piracy laws in developing countries. In fact, by depriving small businesses of growth opportunities, they are losing out on potential customers. If small businesses grow into large organizations, they are more likely to purchase licensed software for use.
Book publishers realized long ago that it would be a great challenge to cut down on piracy in the developing economies. They came up with the idea of "low-priced editions" specifically for developing countries. These books were printed on low-quality recycled paper and were bound in paperback.
A similar solution is needed in the software industry. Software companies should start shipping low-priced, stripped-down versions of original software to developing countries. The low-priced versions can have all necessary features of the original packages, but with certain missing options. Microsoft has been following a similar strategy by rolling out free "Express" editions of their development tools, but this is yet to be implemented for commonly used products such as Windows or Office.
A lot of other software companies need to step up and follow this approach to cut down on piracy globally.
— Taimoor Zubair works as a software engineer at a leading BPO solutions company in Pakistan.
@briankatz, Actually from my experience the pirated copies on the local market are the same as the official ones, I hardly see alternative pirated copies on peoples systems.
The familairity with the more popular software is the reason they are the most pirated.
You realize that the title said "mostly", I therefore agree that it may not always be an affordability issue. In Ghana where I currently live and work, it is a very significant factor.
You see, when someone cannot afford it and therefore pirates, it is difficult to rate the other reasons that lead to piracy. You must eliminate the affordabililty factor before the remaining factors would properly rateable.
Yes indeed, nasimson. I once heard that a Microsoft staff said they'd rather have people using pirated Microsoft software than FOSS. 'Tis true, and it'll definitely happen.
But regarding using unique identifiers to fight piracy, I do know that a great many have gotten around that barrier. Most of the pirated software I see around are either OEM/enterprise editions or consumer editions with the verification method hacked.
> 2) it'll be hard to exchange files with other people because the formatting > goes haywire when the same files are read by another program;
@Taimoor Zubair and @ Magnetic North:
You are on the verge of making an important point. Let me help you with it. Controlling software pircay is no BIG deal. It requires no BSA, regulatory framework no law and enforcement. It just requires software to check its unique identifier (label, CD key etc) with a central registry, check for any duplications, and stops running if it finds one. And doing this is no rocket science. Microsoft, for example has been doing for half a decade now.
So, why dont companies dont fix (what they easily can) and continue to complain?
In addition to affordability, lack of knowledge of the risks and all the other factors mentioned here, i would add that 'free software' is a culture and by this i am not talking about open source. I am looking at the culture where people are too used to copying software that it begins to look normal. Particularly this applies at individual usage level.
In such a case, one does not find it practical to be spending money on utility software, operating systems, antiviruses etc. I would suggest that as a country gets more developed and disposable income increases, the spending attitudes of its people change and then it is much easier to sell such things as software.
I had agreed and reiterate that affordability is the keyword when it come to piracy, the other issues are mostly secondary to the affordability issue.
@abdlah, I am not sure if affordability is the keyword. I have seen many users who can afford to buy original copy but still they use pirated once because
- users feel why pay when its available for free.
- Antipiracy laws are weak and rarely implemented.
- Users not aware of disadvantages of using pirated software like secuirty threat.
@magneticnorth: I agree with you on this. But the sad reality with most CSR campaigns is the fact that companies seek projects that give them the maximum coverage and publicity. Giving software at discounted price to a developing country is not likely to give as much publicity as being associated with a well-known charity organization will.
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