Adobe India gears up to fight software piracy

R Jai Krishna

NEW DELHI: Adobe Systems India is gearing up to fight software piracy in the country by using technology to limit piracy, and creating awareness for software to be considered as business critical products.

Talking to CyberMedia News here, Sandeep Mehrotra, country sales manager of Adobe Systems India, said that it was heartening to note that there was a one per cent decrease in software piracy in India as compared to last year.

“Software piracy is primarily 40 per cent more than music and movie piracy. This is because the users do not realize that the mass products offered by Adobe especially such as animation, video and image editing software are business critical products. Piracy also limits the usability of the product, as it does not support software/version updates and support,” he opined.

Mehrotra, who has a total experience of seventeen years of sales experience in the IT industry, working with the channels partners and system integrators said that it is imperative to work closely with channel partners and software vendors.

“We want to make them understand that selling a legal version of software is a source of revenue for them too. Raiding the channels was not a solution to curb piracy, and will only antagonize the channel community,” he said.

“We are engaging channels in a continuous process of educating on piracy and enable them to sell legal version of software. Through this process we want the channel partners to ‘sell deeper solutions’ and that will be to move them from ‘demand fulfillment’ to ‘demand generation’ process,” Mehrotra said.

“Piracy exists as people do not have the attitude to pay for the software they use. There is also a lack of license-management system to monitor the usage. Hence, we feel that awareness among the customers on legal software needs to be created, which might not stop piracy but might curb it to a large extent. Adobe will campaign among the end-user segment to make them look into other consequences of piracy, such as loss job opportunities and the impact on the overall economy of the country,” he said.

Adobe Systems India will also be targeting at firms predominantly use Adobe software suites, such as TV Channels, Media houses, advertising and creative agencies.

“Moreover, considering the role of the software sector in driving the country's growth, the impact of piracy on the Indian economy is substantial. As India moves towards being a knowledge-based economy, the protection of knowledge capital becomes essential for future growth. And with the software industry growing more rapidly than traditional industries, it will become a prominent driver of economic growth. Stronger intellectual property protection and education and awareness are absolutely critical to stem the growth of piracy around the world,” Mehrotra said.

According to a worldwide survey on software piracy conducted by BSA-IDC for the year 2006, the piracy levels in India had dropped by one per cent, standing at 71 per cent, only marginally better than 72 per cent the previous year. The status looks more startling considering that the global average is 35 per cent and the median is 62 per cent, which means, India does not even figure in the top half of the list.

“The rate of software piracy has dropped, but this was less than that of China and Russia. In India, one of the prime reasons for such a high piracy rate is the lack of an enforceable legal framework and also the mindset about using pirated software,” Mehrotra added