Re: COMMENT: India's software piracy causes loss of Rs 900 crore annually

["dodobh@xxxxxxxxxxx" <dodobh@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mukund spewed into the ether:
>>piracy is causing an annual loss of more than Rs 900 crore in the
>>country.
Actually, I wonder, if people had to pay the full price for these
programs, how many of them would choose to use them?

>>The continuing piracy problem meant higher prices for consumers, less
>>publisher revenue to invest in new products and a potential barrier to
>>success for software start-ups in India.
Hmmmmmm, and we know exactly why Microsoft has anti-trust proceedings going against it.

>>"If software piracy continues unabated, the local Indian industry will
>>be robbed of thousands of jobs, billions in wages, tax revenues and
>>critical investments in new technologies," Mehta added.
Actually, no. The local industry will be mostly unaffected.

>>Mehta said many chief executive officers, information technology
>>managers and general managers are aware of the civil and criminal
>>penalties for use of unlicensed software. Yet they continue to fail to
>>act.
Maybe because the penalties are pretty low, and the costs of using
legal software is too much? If software was much more realistically
priced, it would lead to an increase in its sales.

>>"Unfortunately, there are also businesses who deliberately install and
>>use software without appropriate licences. They risk becoming target of
>>legal action," he said.
Do a simple cost benefit analysis, and you will see why they prefer it
that way.

>>Software piracy refers to the illegal installation, distribution, sale
>>and use of infringing software. If found liable under the Copyright
>>Act, offenders risk criminal penalties of upto three years in prison
>>and fines upto Rs 200,000 for the offence of copyright infringement.
This really needs to be tested in a court of law. Will the EULA's
stand that you are only licensed to use the software hold up? Because
it will lead to DMCA like legislation here too, I guess.

>The bottom line is that to tackle piracy,
>1. People must be educated.
>2. Proper constitution should be in place.
>3. The law enforcing agency should be trained.
How about some fair pricing. Let the free market play a role. If there
is wide spread piracy, wouldn't you say that this is because the goods
are priced too high? Let them cut their prices down, and the piracy
will decline too.

>The sole reason for slow linux (or other free os) is due to piracy, because
>for the end user legal software and linux are same as both are free.
Errr, no. The end user can choose to use software in violation of its
licensing terms, or by following them. what you just referrred to as legal software will be legal if and only if the license of that software has not been violated. If it is distributed freely, then the license is violated, which makes its use illegal.
So while Linux is Free (beer[or minimum cost for media] and speech), the other one is merely free as in beer, and using it leaves the threat of legal action always hanging over your head.
And in the case of corporations, it is not very easy to manage all the
licenses for various pieces of software, this is also a cost for the consumer.

Devdas Bhagat



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