Waging War Against Software Piracy

The issue of pirated software is one that the software industry fights on the daily basis. The major centers of software piracy are in places like Russia and China where salaries and disposable income are comparatively low. Given that people in developing (like the Philippines) and economically depressed countries will fall behind the industrialized world technologically if they cannot afford access to new generations of software, is it reasonable to blame someone for using pirated software when it costs two months' salary to buy a legal copy of MS Office? What approach could software companies use to combat the problem apart from punitive measures, like pressuring the government to impose sanctions on transgressors?

Safenet defines piracy as “copying, selling, sharing, or distributing software illegally”. Piracy can vary from a limited case of installation of a single-user license on multiple computers to a more chronic problem of widespread online distribution. It is widespread in the Philippines, where consumers would rather use unlicensed versions of software than pay the exorbitant fees they entail.

So how do we solve software piracy? Let us first look at other piracy statistics, specifically about music piracy in Norway. According to an article in the Business Insider website, the number of people who admit to downloading music, videos, and other files illegally online in Norway has dramatically dropped from 80% to 4% over a fire-year period. Another significant finding is also tied to that: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) found that while 27% of the world’s digital music revenue comes from streaming services, in Norway that number is more than doubled at 65%. This means that Norwegian’s use of streaming services has hugely decreased piracy.

Why did Norwegians revert to online streaming instead of downloading these files illegally? The answer is really quite simple: because they have now become free or inexpensive, and have been made very easy to access.

Now back to software. Software companies have to start decreasing prices, or at least offer more affordable ladderized packages based on usage. For instance, a basic personal user may get it for free, and once he decides to get other features later, he can upgrade online to get them for additional fees. Customizable packages would be great to have so users can decide what they want to get and how much they are willing to pay at a certain time based on their budget and needs. Think of it as a “make-your-own-pizza” concept. Some people want all the toppings, others do not want anchovies, others want extra pineapples, and so on. This is also true with software.

Software companies also have to make software content more available online, so that it is more convenient to get legally than illegally. Right now, I’m willing to bet that people know more illegal file-sharing sites that facilitate illegal downloads than they know legit sites to get them.

My opinion is that that eliminating piracy by aggressively trying to catch illegal file hosters or downloaders may not be the way to go; we should be discouraging piracy instead. 

We have to fix the system so that online piracy becomes pointless to conduct. 

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War