During the past few weeks, one couldn’t glance through the international headlines without reading about the saga of Piracy unfolding in the Gulf of Aden and at high-seas. To those of us in the software IT services business, another version of this scourge continues to impact us: software piracy.
Given that Piracy is noteworthy and the pirates at sea are operate offshore, I am surprised that some smart alec writer or blogger hasn’t picked up on offshoring piracy. It is probably because large software services firms, Infosys included, take Intellectual property rights seriously. Most have strong policies and guidelines preventing employees, consultants and service providers from indulging in such acts and violations are not tolerated.
The numbers in terms of dollars lost to software piracy are hugh. For instance, this article talks about how “Software ranks among the most popular categories of counterfeited goods, and the Internet is only contributing to the rise in intellectual property violations, according to research by a piracy-prevention consultancy . . . During the month of June 2005, $91 million worth of entertainment media and software was pirated worldwide, up 13 per cent from December 2004, according to research from Canada's Gieschen Consultancy.”
Though companies discourage the practice by strong enforcement within their environments, software piracy continues. Pervasiveness of wi-fi and broadband has made piracy a cottage industry. Many of us may support or actively participate in piracy without even blinking. Here is a dipstick: Do you feel guilty about making copies of the latest music hit that your friend bought? (or the other way around) While doing so, you may not feel as sinister as a gang of Somalis taking the captain of Mersk Alabama hostage, it is still about the owner of the “rights” not getting their due share. Which makes one wonder if there such a thing as Harmless piracy?
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