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Pirated software up for grabs

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Sudarshana Banerjee



NEW DELHI: Windows XP in a double-CD set is all yours for Rs 70. Rs 100 if you are wearing a pair of jeans. Rs 500 if you are seen stepping down from an expensive car. Rs 1000 if you look like you can pay up. Rs 2000 maybe, if you look new to the deal of buying pirated software. "We were selling the Windows XP days before it was actually launched in India. And yes, it did come with all the clip-arts and features like that," a confident voice informs CNS in Nehru Place. "Even now, we can supply software before it comes to India," he adds.



Nehru Place is the paradise for pirated software. You will find these dealers, some 50 in all, in various assorted tables strewn all over the place. There are perfectly legitimate CDs on display — usually Windows tutorials by Indian companies. But ask for a Adobe PhotoShop and it materializes almost out of the blue. Somebody will even loosen his tucked up shirt and fish out the CD from his insides and you can catch a glimpse of an assortment of CDs in plastic packets, tucked in his belt.



The software sold here even comes with a warranty of sorts, "Bring it back if there are installation problems. We will refund your money or exchange the CD." Name a software and they have it. Ditto for game CDs. Mp3s to some extent, and to a lesser extent pirated VCDs. "And if a particular title is not available, we will get it for you," informs another dealer.



But what with the industry going through a not-so-bright patch, how have sales been? "We do not think there has been a bad phase.



We do not know statistics. But during the summer vacations, you should have seen the number of cars lined up. We had huge sales." Yet another dealer answers, "Surveys will of course not reflect the exact figures. Go around asking the dealers… how many of them will give you a bill of sale?" Selling prices are not fixed, but vary from customer to customer. There is a flat rate of Rs 100 per CD, irrespective of software content, for those customers used to buying software from around here and thus knowing how much to bargain for.



Operating systems are the best grossers, with Windows 98 topping the list. As is understood, software used by the home segments or the SMEs are available more readily out here. A Lotus smartSuite might be available, but software like Lotus smartSuites will take more time and cost more.



Each of the individual dealers (CNS spoke to fifteen such dealers) sell on an average 8 to 10 CDs a day — which translates into a neat profit of Rs 7000 to Rs 8000 at the end of the month. Multiply that with the number of dealers on the prowl, profits are in the range of Rs 4,00,000, on a pessimistic estimate that too.



But the piracy picture is all but rosy. "There are raids on an average once every month. The policewallahs are all on the know, they take Rs 1000 every month from us. In fact, the policewallahs make Rs 1 lakh on an average from Nehru Place. Have you ever seen the cars they drive or the mobiles they carry? Tell me, how can they afford to do so with a government salary?"



Another sad story is that while the petty dealers manning the desks are put behind bars, or harassed, the leaders who run these operations go around scot-free.



Those who man the desks just do so in return of a salary ranging from Rs 1500 to Rs 4000, depending. A dealer not willing to be named informed that recently the police had arrested a dealer. He was let off against a bail of Rs 2 lakh and a security of Rs 5 lakh. "The Boss paid for this. The Boss looks after us as if we are family. But the police did not even question the antecedents as to why somebody would pay for the bail. They could have back-traced us nah?



We are being extra-careful after that. If you are coming up with a report, I can guarantee you there will be a raid in its wake. At least one of us will be caught and beaten up. But I can also guarantee you that it will be business soon after."



We also have to understand the economic imbalances that lead to piracy. The present scenario is such, that for the average user, it seems to be the only option out.



Consider this, for example. A design consultant can expect to earn on an average Rs 1 lakh to Rs 6 lakh per annum. If he wants to go in for a bouquet of legal software — the Photoshops, the Corels, the Freehands, etc., it will cost him somewhere in the region of Rs 4 lakh. The wannabe designer is therefore left with two options –he buys legal software worth some Rs 30,000 and wallows the rest of his life in misery or he picks up pirated stuff which will not cost him more than Rs 1000.



Another interesting thing to note is that one of the major sectors where piracy is rampant is education. How many of our schools, colleges and education institutes can afford the original stuff? Abroad, we have special deals for education institutions, unfortunately, apart from Microsoft, very few other players have been active in India as far as this area of focus is concerned.



Pirated software is bad news for the companies, right? Especially so for the companies which end up losing a lot of revenue. But what the software companies will not tell you is that software piracy has its uppers too. The members of the BSA now, had at some stage themselves encouraged the use of free software and piracy to ensure market penetration. (And thereby killing the local anti-virus software market in India by stiff competition, to cite but one example).



If we look at the Asia Pacific market for example, a major reason why the Microsofts and the Adobes of this world could penetrate China or Singapore is because the pirated versions had already gone a great way in increasing awareness. (We can compare this with the publishing houses distributing copies of its best sellers to the public libraries).



More so in the case of software, the pluses of a multi-user syndrome cannot be ruled out. If a SME for example is willing to shell out Rs 50,000 plus for an application, won’t the decision making authorities want to have at least a working knowledge of how it runs, and what it can do to streamline their businesses?



Again, at least a percentage of people buying pirated software would at some stage go in for a legal version of the same, if at least for tax reasons. They might after that, make five copies of the same and use it in five different workstations, but for a software company this becomes a classic case of half a loaf being better than none.



Also in a developing country like ours, the fact that there are pirated software doing the rounds has in turn brought up PC penetration (how many of the local cybercafes you know run on legal software?) and helped bridge the much talked about digital divide to a considerable extent.



This, in turn is good news for the companies going by the simple rule of statistics that as the number of users increase and as people become increasingly aware of the demerits of using pirated software, the sale of legal software will also be on the rise. This would mean that and the piracy level in India will settle down to an acceptable 15 to 20 per cent, rather than the plus 75 per cent it correctly stands at. Till then, its business as usual at Nehru Place.

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