Pirated software causes millions in losses
Karachi: Despite all the efforts made to prevent the illegal copying of registered software, the piracy business is still in full swing.
It is also believed that all measures taken against the people involved in such activities are not enough to take care of the problem and the government and other stakeholders should play a strong role in helping the Information Industry (IT) in Pakistan, particularly Karachi–the IT hub.
A study conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) revealed that software piracy is already widespread in Pakistan with a growing rate of 86 per cent. Sadly, people are unaware that piracy threatens the very existence of the software industry.
According to the study, the global software industry suffered a loss of $39.58 billion from piracy in 2006, while Pakistan lost $143 million in the same year. The BSA is an alliance of the software industry and its hardware partners, who share the common goal of reducing software piracy across the globe.
A study also disclosed that Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Reader, AutoCAD, Macromedia Dreamweaver are among the most popular pirated software.
Recently, the local police arrested a dealer and retained some 259 CDs from his possession. All of them were illegal copies of registered and well-recognised software. Along with the pirated material, the police also seized a copying machine and a personal computer with unlicensed software installed in it.
The software vendors involved in making illegal copies of original software are repeatedly ignoring the BSA warnings to shut down their businesses. They are the main culprits, a BSA spokesperson said.
Discussing the increasing number of circulations of pirated software and their uses at the educational and professional level, he further said that 35 per cent of the world’s software was pirated. Software piracy is not only a crime, it can also destroy computers and data. Currently, third world countries are the leading illegal vendors of pirated software, he further said.
He added that they (the BSA) always lodged criminal cases against the guilty party and recently, they had registered a case against an accused for violating copyright laws. He also said that this was among the best possible ways to uproot the unethical business as the rest depended upon the government and its policies to deal with people involved in such crimes.
Syed Asim Ali, a faculty member of the department of Computer Science, University of Karachi (KU), told The News that any software which is stolen, copied, and reproduced for commercial use is called “pirated” software. Any software can be called pirated software if it is obtained illegally, without the payment of a licensing fee, he further said.
Talking about its success rate in the city, he said that Karachi has been the hub of pirated activities for some time now. First it was ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Bollywood’ movies and now software is no exception either.
Rainbow Centre and “Kohri Garden are considered to be the main places of these pirated activities, where thousands (if not more) copies of any CD can be made and distributed to each and every corner of the country in a matter of hours, Syed Asim added. He also said that nowadays, pushcart vendors had large quantities of these pirated versions of software also, though in the past they dealt with movies exclusively.
Asim who is also part of the department of Main Communication Network, KU, as Web IS Development team head, also pointed out that not only do these vendors do good business in the country, but now Pakistanis living abroad especially write to their relatives to send them software CDs (in bulk) from these centres.
Source: The News
Date:10/6/2007
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