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Articles
IP Piracy in India – Looking Back and Ahead…
Dinesh Jotwani
Dinesh Jotwani is the Senior IP Attorney (Asia Pac) & India Counsel, Symantec Corporation.
Today we have easy access to software products in the market, with just a single degree of separation between the producer and the consumer. This has created new opportunities as well as problems, foremost among them being counterfeiting and piracy.
Emerging and Existing Forms of Piracy
In 1929, Edwin Hubble, discovered that the universe is expanding. But the expanding universe has perpetually no impact on the way human beings are connected with each other. Thanks to the networking products and solutions offered by the revolutionary IT era. This fabulous connectivity that we enjoy has been used and misused in various ways. The increasing use of networking solutions has also resulted in an increase in piracy since sharing of pirated products across multiple networks has become much easier.
Software piracy, which has existed for a while now, has further worsened. According to the findings of the fifth annual global PC software piracy study, released by Business Software Alliance (BSA), the industry losses due to software piracy in India rose to USD 2 billion in 2007 as compared to USD 1.28 billion in 2006.
Currently, online piracy is one of the biggest issues as there are a number of websites that offer downloads of unauthorized products like movies and songs, free of cost. This problem is compounded by the fact that a large number of legitimate online shops are also involved in uploading & selling pirated software through the net. The second major issue is the myth with software piracy. The prevailing myth about pirated software usage is that only the original purchaser is in infringement, and subsequent users are not bound to any contract. It is yet to be realised that acceptance of the licensing agreement before installation is sufficient to create a contract between the copyright holder and the end user. Some software’s would stipulate a binding license contract if the box containing the CD is manually open.
The Risk…
The biggest risk due to the usage of pirated software is the overall security threat to an organizations’ IT infrastructure. In addition to regular system break-downs, pirated software installations are notorious for receiving limited updates and security patches, making the system extremely vulnerable to external security attacks like malicious code, phishing and spam. This does not include the cost of potential loss of proprietary information due to such unauthorized software installations.
The cost to organizations from a single pirated software installation runs into thousands of dollars and the data loss due to such malicious installations can run into thousands of dollars. It is learnt that in Asia Pacific alone, around USD 14,090 million was lost in 2007 due to piracy. Eventually, as it may turn out to be, the payback of using pirated software would far exceed the price of purchasing licensed software
Awareness & Enforcement are Key to Combating Piracy
A ten point reduction in PC software piracy would deliver 44,000 new jobs, USD 200 million in tax revenues and USD 3.1 billion in economic growth in India (IDC 2008). This is achievable, only with concerted efforts by all stakeholders. An important tool towards combating piracy is awareness; the other being law enforcement and industry efforts. Increasing awareness about the economic implications of piracy among end-users is essential, considering the huge influx of new users in emerging markets.
We have stringent laws for Intellectual Property protection, but the challenge is the effective enforcement of the prescribed laws. In a software piracy case, the crime has to be identified, reported and action against it has to be taken immediately.
In order to spread awareness the government has set up collective administrative societies which organizes seminars and workshops. Handbooks of Copyright law are also circulated free-of-cost amongst public, police, enforcement agencies and officials. Additionally, modules of copyright infringement have been introduced in the training program at national academies and colleges. Special cells for copyright enforcement have been created in almost all states; many of them being implemented on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with industry leaders. Further, according to law, any police officer having the requisite rank may conduct search and seizure operations as well as effect arrests without the lodging of any formal complaint.
The Government is also making relentless efforts to encourage the use of legitimate software within its own departments; and put its weight behind the industry and enforcement policies.
Software companies eyeing overseas markets will require proving their ability to maintain adequate security levels. Security is not just a mere statutory requirement but an important factor to compete globally. Software giants on their part are engaging students, academicians and government bodies to educate them about piracy and help safeguard their data against any threats. For individuals, who get affected by piracy the most, software companies offer programs like Digital Rights Management technology, which allows copyright holders to manage and restrict usage of digital media and devices.
In Conclusion
The current 69 percent piracy rate in India, which is a two percentage point drop from 2006, is a result of government and industry education and enforcement efforts, software vendor activation controls; and an increase in PC market share by multinational vendors. This is not sufficient, there is an urgent need to strive and eliminate the piracy software distribution channel, lest the country would remain in shambles.
As India increasingly caters to a global market, it becomes imperative that we continue to adopt major reform and information security standards and project a better image of the country in the global marketplace.
Emerging and Existing Forms of Piracy
In 1929, Edwin Hubble, discovered that the universe is expanding. But the expanding universe has perpetually no impact on the way human beings are connected with each other. Thanks to the networking products and solutions offered by the revolutionary IT era. This fabulous connectivity that we enjoy has been used and misused in various ways. The increasing use of networking solutions has also resulted in an increase in piracy since sharing of pirated products across multiple networks has become much easier.
Software piracy, which has existed for a while now, has further worsened. According to the findings of the fifth annual global PC software piracy study, released by Business Software Alliance (BSA), the industry losses due to software piracy in India rose to USD 2 billion in 2007 as compared to USD 1.28 billion in 2006.
Currently, online piracy is one of the biggest issues as there are a number of websites that offer downloads of unauthorized products like movies and songs, free of cost. This problem is compounded by the fact that a large number of legitimate online shops are also involved in uploading & selling pirated software through the net. The second major issue is the myth with software piracy. The prevailing myth about pirated software usage is that only the original purchaser is in infringement, and subsequent users are not bound to any contract. It is yet to be realised that acceptance of the licensing agreement before installation is sufficient to create a contract between the copyright holder and the end user. Some software’s would stipulate a binding license contract if the box containing the CD is manually open.
The Risk…
The biggest risk due to the usage of pirated software is the overall security threat to an organizations’ IT infrastructure. In addition to regular system break-downs, pirated software installations are notorious for receiving limited updates and security patches, making the system extremely vulnerable to external security attacks like malicious code, phishing and spam. This does not include the cost of potential loss of proprietary information due to such unauthorized software installations.
The cost to organizations from a single pirated software installation runs into thousands of dollars and the data loss due to such malicious installations can run into thousands of dollars. It is learnt that in Asia Pacific alone, around USD 14,090 million was lost in 2007 due to piracy. Eventually, as it may turn out to be, the payback of using pirated software would far exceed the price of purchasing licensed software
Awareness & Enforcement are Key to Combating Piracy
A ten point reduction in PC software piracy would deliver 44,000 new jobs, USD 200 million in tax revenues and USD 3.1 billion in economic growth in India (IDC 2008). This is achievable, only with concerted efforts by all stakeholders. An important tool towards combating piracy is awareness; the other being law enforcement and industry efforts. Increasing awareness about the economic implications of piracy among end-users is essential, considering the huge influx of new users in emerging markets.
We have stringent laws for Intellectual Property protection, but the challenge is the effective enforcement of the prescribed laws. In a software piracy case, the crime has to be identified, reported and action against it has to be taken immediately.
In order to spread awareness the government has set up collective administrative societies which organizes seminars and workshops. Handbooks of Copyright law are also circulated free-of-cost amongst public, police, enforcement agencies and officials. Additionally, modules of copyright infringement have been introduced in the training program at national academies and colleges. Special cells for copyright enforcement have been created in almost all states; many of them being implemented on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with industry leaders. Further, according to law, any police officer having the requisite rank may conduct search and seizure operations as well as effect arrests without the lodging of any formal complaint.
The Government is also making relentless efforts to encourage the use of legitimate software within its own departments; and put its weight behind the industry and enforcement policies.
Software companies eyeing overseas markets will require proving their ability to maintain adequate security levels. Security is not just a mere statutory requirement but an important factor to compete globally. Software giants on their part are engaging students, academicians and government bodies to educate them about piracy and help safeguard their data against any threats. For individuals, who get affected by piracy the most, software companies offer programs like Digital Rights Management technology, which allows copyright holders to manage and restrict usage of digital media and devices.
In Conclusion
The current 69 percent piracy rate in India, which is a two percentage point drop from 2006, is a result of government and industry education and enforcement efforts, software vendor activation controls; and an increase in PC market share by multinational vendors. This is not sufficient, there is an urgent need to strive and eliminate the piracy software distribution channel, lest the country would remain in shambles.
As India increasingly caters to a global market, it becomes imperative that we continue to adopt major reform and information security standards and project a better image of the country in the global marketplace.
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