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Microsoft spruces up to counter counterfeit, piracy

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

R Jai Krishna

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CHENNAI: "Fighting against high quality counterfeits and internet piracy are the two important intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement challenges for Microsoft, whose foundation is based on its intellectual property," according to Tim Dwyer, regional investigator, Asia Pacific Digital Integrity Team, Law and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation.

Dwyer said that since reseller web distribution, individual web distributing, auction sites, etc. offer anonymity and facilitate ease of brokering and shipping, tackling the online IP crime becomes a daunting task for companies and the enforcement authorities world over.

He was sharing the US experiences in the enforcement of IPR in the Workshop for IPR enforcement and protection agencies, on the sidelines of the Indo-US Seminar and Workshop on IPR Enforcement here, Dwyer said that high quality counterfeits represent large scale distribution of counterfeit software that are passed off to customers as genuine software, softlifting and corporate piracy result in major revenue and business losses. This is contrary to the low quality counterfeits such as compilation of CDs and CDRs that take place at the IT users level.

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"High quality counterfeiting has become a well-organized crime that cheats customers by marginally reducing the price of pirated software in the name of "passing on the benefits" of high volume sale to the customers," Dwyer said adding that the Internet piracy too is rampant that thrives on spam e-mail advertisements and websites that have dynamic IPs.

He said that Microsoft has recently formed a brand protection team assisted by intelligence analysts, who are based in North America, Europe and Asia. The team generates investigative leads, product ID and provides the big picture in software piracy. With the support of CBI, Microsoft India has recently conducted a raid in 22 locations in New Delhi that resulted in the legal action against about 16 business houses.

Dwyer said that the focus of enforcement authorities the world over is not very much on curbing the counterfeit software. Hence trafficking of pirated software has become a low-risk but high-return crime activity. For instance, for every US $1000 invested in the production and trafficking of software, the returns are in the range of US$40,000 to US$ 7,50,000. However, the returns on the same amount invested in trafficking high-risk heroin or credit cards are less than US$ 19,800 and US$ 6,700 respectively.

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Quoting a study by the Business Software Alliance, Dwyer said that India is ranked 20th in global software piracy with a rate of 74 per cent for 2005. The worldwide losses as a result of all software piracy are estimated at US$ 29 billion in 2003 and the Asia Pacific losses for the same year are around US$ 7.5 billion.

He said Microsoft has recently launched "Ask for Genuine Microsoft" programme aimed at reducing the supply and demand for counterfeit product and dismantle the illegal network. Using the programme, the IT users can get non-genuine notifications and automatic updates.

Rebecca Ward, director - IP and Licensing, Microsoft, India, who had participated in the seminar, said that world over a 10 per cent reduction in software piracy could help organizations to provide job-training benefits to 435 million employees, healthcare to 45 million patients and college degrees to 6.6 million students.

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If India can reduce 10 per cent of IT piracy, it can add 1,15,000 new jobs and US$ 5.9 billion to the GDP. While the government can earn 386 million in tax revenues, the local vendors can earn US$ 8.2 billion revenues.

Rebecca said that lack of cultural inhibitions in using pirated software, ignorance of the legal aspects of using a pirated software, lack of availability of genuine software and lack of strong government regulation are some of the reasons for the growing piracy in Asia.

She said that respect for IP must be cultivated, and training is the lynchpin of any concentrated attempt to strengthen the enforcement of IPR in India.

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