In Software piracy in India witnessed a single percentage drop in piracy rate for PC software in 2010 down to 64%, as compared to 2009, a rate slightly higher than the Asia Pacific rate of 60%. With that rate, the commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in India touched $2.739 billion in 2010, whereas the global losses stood at $59 billion. These are among the findings of the 8th Annual IDC-Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010 Global Software Piracy Study (Piracy Study), which researches and evaluates the state of software piracy around the world. In total, Indias piracy rate has dropped 10% points since the year 2004, where it stood at 74%, and thus, a continuous drop but a slow one.
These findings show that there has been a gradual progress in reducing the software piracy rate in India, but what is needed is a speedier drop as Indias PC market grows in size. The further we reduce software piracy and grow the legitimate software product market, the greater the benefits to the Indian economy in terms of added new jobs, increase in Governments legitimate tax collections, contribution to GDP, respect for intellectual property , growth of the domestic IT product industry and PC/IT security to the nation as a whole. India is the second fastest growing economy in the world with a high growth PC market, whereas the software product market is lagging behind. Although Government and industry must be commended for the efforts that are underway to tackle this menace, India requires an accelerated and focused programs and initatives to educate PC users and companies on the benefits of legal and licensed software and how it causes economic losses to the local industry and creates serious cyber security vulnerabilities. said Keshav S Dhakad, Chair - BSA India .
The study also indicates that while the number of PCs shipped to emerging economies like India in 2010 accounted to more than 50% of the world total, paid software licenses accounted for less than 20% of global sales in 2010.
The survey also found widespread recognition that licensed software is better than pirated software, because it is understood to be more secure and more reliable. The problem is many PC users especially in developing economies lack a clear understanding of whether common ways of acquiring software, such as buying a single PC software license and installing it on multiple computers or downloading a program from a peer-to-peer network, are legal copies or if they are illegal. The most cited advantages of licensed software globally are access to technical assistance (88%) and protection from hackers and malware (81%).
Software Piracy has broader implications which transcends beyond the realm of software industry and it impacts the health of Nations economy, Business risks for Industry, Opportunity losses for Small Business/Service firms/ Consumers, reduces government tax revenues. Coordinated action, Constant education and awareness is the need of the hour said Anjan Das, Executive Director, Technology, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
While Government of India, industry bodies and software companies continue to take initiatives to curb piracy and educate end-users, challenges at various fronts still remain including that of a robust national IPR enforcement ecosystem, creation of dedicated IPR adjudication judicial system and continued capacity building of all stakeholders including Government decision makers, judiciary, public prosecution department, law enforcement agencies, Corporate CIOs, CFOs, channel partners, and end-users.
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