"Is software piracy really a threat for IT industry ?"

plzzz share the ideas on this Important topic.

There are two prospective of this issue.
1-Yes it is really threat for some companies who are spending millions of dollor in research and development of software's and if they are not in position to get return of it(in case of piracy), probably they will not be able to sustain themselves in Market. But there is on other side some people say that big joints of software industry are themselves invloved in piracy of their softawre's in order to get reputation of their products like MS Windows in Pakistan which is pirated in Massive quantity rather then using Linux OS which is Freely available. After that when people became habitual of using this kind of software's the companies starts legal action against using by raiding the companies and shops.

2-Although piracy is not ethical, but in some cases like in Pakistan it is good for students beacuse they have not enough purchase power to buy lincense CD's .If Pirated CD's would not be avialbale many of them will be deprived of IT Education.

I agree with Asif Malik, just want to add a little..

Piracy is our strength as well as weakness at present. Moreover there are some serious concerns involved about the future of copy right laws for IT industry in Pakistan.

It is a major drawback faced by IT industry because the software products almost have no market within the country. They are pirated as soon as are launched thus giving almost no return to company. A well known example is of "In Page" software. Although the product was good, of high quality and according to market needs but the results were disastrous for the company. They owner had to wind up the company and he got no return on his investment.

The same becomes the strength of our IT professionals when they go abroad. They have hands-on experience on the latest versions of a number of software tools that are unaffordable for people as well as companies abroad.

The real concerns are not about the present state but the future. Piracy is expected to end up in Pakistan in a few coming years. The companies that have captured the market by now will demand from the government to implement means to prevent it. At present the piracy business is in hands of about 3 or 4 distributors in Karachi. They distribute the softwares across the country as soon as are launched. Government won’t have to do a lot in this regard.

The strategy by foreign companies at present is same as adopted when tea was launched in the Subcontinent. No one was willing to give it a try so they make different tea centers to get it for free along with some snacks. Then with time snacks were removed and after people became habitual the tea was no more for free. At this time spend about 2 billion each year for importing tea!

If we consider the pains and gains for implementing such laws at our national level the obvious gain would be for IT industry. Software market will increase. Companies within the country would prefer to buy the economical softwares developed locally as those from abroad would no more be available free of cost. Most of the prominent IT companies are already paying for tools they are using to comply with certification standards so it should be beneficial for the industry.

About the pains the Education Sector will suffer the most. The reasons are obvious so lets have a look on the possible solutions. In European Union they have shifted the whole Education Sector to open source softwares to avoid black mailing by monopolies. Students learn form softwares that are open source or from the open source trial versions of remaining softwares. I

Still in some other countries they have exempted the Education Sector and students from Piracy Acts. All the copy right laws just apply to Industrial Sector. This might be the most appropriate solution when Pakistan is to implement them. But the problem that might rise at that time is: people at key positions mostly don’t have any idea about the consequences of decisions they are taking. They usually don’t even give a single thought to such serious issues. They would certainly be able to resolve it if they want to. IT is a business itself , so authorities would easily able to bargain for such advantages at national level. We are a free nation and we need not to carry out each and every order as dictated. The only need is to realise!

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"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller