Copy cats wage 'Software'
Contributed by Col. B. F. Chaudhari(Retd.)

Illegally copying software programs is piracy. Piracy at the macro level has grown like a deadly cancer. Though theft or imitation of software has been a great concern, the largest theft of intellectual property has been at the micro level, which is software piracy.

Copyright laws have not been able to prevent such crimes, not because the laws have holes, but cue to its non implementation. In the last decade computer piracy was confined to individuals trading in computer games.However, several factors, which have manifested in the software developement industry has resulted in mushrooming of unauthorized duplication. For one, duplication. For one, duplication helps in making a quick buck. That is why it has moved from homes to businesses. Software publisher have endeavoured to combat piracy but their efforts have not satisfactorily curbed this menace. In fact,it has only grown.

Most software program users of the various segments of the industry do not believe in buying licensed software except for specialised softwares which is used by special segments. Of late even special segments have experienced piracy due to financial constraints. Imagine someone surreptitiously slopping a compact disc in their pocket and walking out of the door. Though this appears to be harmless on the face of it,it actually amounts to theft.

Copyright Act, 1957, was amended in 1994 to include protection of intellectual property rights of software developers. But due to piracy the very purpose of the amendment has been defeated. The users of pirated copies are unaware of the serious consequences that the law provides for, besides its ramifications in social life. For law enforcement authorities and the owners of the intellectual property, that is, software developed by them, it is almost impossible to catch pirates, particularly resellers, since the copies are made on order, unlike video and audio piracy, where pirated copies are available across the counter. This is frustrating because developing software takes hours of labour and lot of money.

Most Indian software developers employ locking systems to prevent piracy of their product. Yet pirates break or bypass locking systems, copy the software and sell it at throwaway prices. Both, hardware as well as software locking systems has been utilised by developers, but has failed to stop pirates.

Indian software Scenario

India is quickly emerging as a leader in software products. Indian made software are of good quality, are reliable and cost effective.

Indian software industry has zoomed from a US $150 million, which was 10 years back, to $ 3.9 Billion. This is around 15890 core in 1998-99.With an average 56.3% GAGR growth annually, this figure is likely to reach Rs. 24500 core in 1999-2000. Experts estimate that by 2000-2001, the figure will boom to Rs.55200 core (US $ 13 Billion) and by 2008 it would reach US $ 35 Billion ( RS 140000 core). This phenomenal growth has created many millionaires in India.

Indian software companies generally concentrate on developing application softwares for three main sectors - banking, manufacturing including the publishing Industry, insurance and other financial services. Also many multinational companies are outsourcing from India. This high growth rate is because India possesses the world's second largest pool of scientific professionals who are English speaking. On March 31,1999, the software industry in India employed more than 250,000 people

Marketing has been the key to the development of the Indian software industry. Direct marketing to the end users has been traditionally accepted as a reliable tool for selling by various developers. However, many software companies have also set up their offices in various cities or have tide up with marketing agencies to control their India operations.

However, software piracy is rampant in India and popular Indian software packages like Shree-lipi, Tally, EX, Indica, Prakashak and Mossaic. The only "competitors", Dr. M. N. Cooper, R. R. Joshi and M. R. Joshi of Modular Infotech Pvt. Ltd, Pune, feel are the "pirates".

Since most software is in English, the immense treasure of knowledge available to a regional language user. This has made the multilingual software industry lucrative, as multi-lingual software can be used for mass communication. However, the industry has suffered because such software, developed painstakingly, is easily pirated and sold cheaply. Therefore, arresting piracy will stimulate the industry to do better. Modular Infotech Pvt. Ltd., Pune, which was Modular System before and their sister concerns developed the first multilingual software 'Shree-lipi'. It provides the facility to write in 14 Indian languages, with various fonts to choose from. Modular Infotech has 50 percent of the market share today and is the leader. Dr. M. N. Cooper claims that their company lose Rs 40 to 50 lakhs annually due to piracy of Shree-Lipi version 1.0, which has captured the regional language publishing industry.

Copyright Act, 1957, was amended in 1994 to cover the intellectual property rights of computer software developers in India. These amendments came in to effect on 10th May, 1995. This has made the Indian copyright law one of the toughest in the world. Offenders under the Indian copyright laws are given heavy punishments or fined.

Duplicate software programs have unique problems. Though the copy may be goods as original, it starts suffering from bugs in the long run. The copyright infringer is liable to be tried both under civil and criminal law. Action may be accordingly instituted, which may be an injunction, unliquidated damages ( including profits) or statutory damages per infringement.

The amendment has increased criminal penalties. Section 63 (B) of the copyright Act envisages a minimum punishment and a fine of Rs. 50,000, which can be extended to 3 years and Rs. 2 lakhs.

As pointed out earlier, such heavy punishment has had no effects, since not a single case has been tried to its finality. Without proper convictions, the question of deterring a possible pirate is out of the question

Though the world 'piracy' conjures up images of plundering in high seas, quite theft of intellectual property, as in the case of software, has existed ever since people were first able to lay their hands on personal computers.

It was easy to copy the data from floopy disk drives and make copies of programs, which you could latter download to your diskettes without paying a dime.

In the late 80s, however, personal computer companies started using CD-ROMs ( compact disk- read only memory), as they can hold more information than floppies and able to load information faster.

&nbspThis helped piracy and threats not to use CDs on more than one computer did not have any effect. Later, techniques were developed on the personal computer which helped even illiterate users to pirate original products.

&nbspToday, piracy is a routine affair. Routes like CD-ROM burners, CD-R and CD-RW drives, the world wide web and 'crack' codes have made the piracy has often dampened the spirits of software developers and thwarted growth of the industry.

(This article was published in Intelligent Pune 29/7/2002)