By V L Srinivasan
Muscat, March 14 : Software piracy in Oman is the highest among the GCC nations, and is also above the average piracy rate of the Middle East and Africa (MENA) region, a study conducted by the Business Software Alliance-International Data Corporation (BSA-IDC) has revealed.
The sixth annual BSA-IDC Global Software report, which was released in May 2009, put the software piracy rate in the sultanate at around 62 per cent, causing a loss of US$25mn every year to the exchequer. In other words, of the estimated 430,000 personal computers in the country, 352,600 do not have original software installed.
Oman is followed by Kuwait (61 per cent), Bahrain (55), Saudi Arabia (52), Qatar (51) and UAE (37). Neighbouring Yemen has the dubious distinction of 89 per cent software piracy, and is listed eighth in the world.
‘The Middle East and Africa region has a piracy rate of 59 per cent in 2008, and is the fourth largest market for pirated software in the world. This resulted in a tangible overall economic loss of US$3bn across the region as a whole,’ the report said.
In fact, the UAE-based Microsoft Gulf recently lodged a complaint with the Economic Crimes department of the Royal Oman Police, which promptly conducted three anti-piracy raids against resellers and seized over 73 CDs of MS Windows and MS Office.
According to Microsoft Gulf's IPR manager Jawad al Redha, his company took a serious view of the issue, as its customers deserve the highest level of satisfaction when purchasing its products.
“Through our Genuine Software Initiative (GSI), we are creating awareness among our customers and also investing to develop world class anti-counterfeiting technologies. We are supporting government and law enforcement agencies who are taking action against counterfeiters,” he said.
According to industry sources, countries where counterfeit software is developed incur both tangible and intangible losses, as the producers of genuine software are reluctant to develop products in locations where counterfeiting takes place, causing an immediate loss in foreign direct investment (FDI). "These nations will witness an adverse impact on the social and economic systems, and not just the IT industry alone," sources told Muscat Daily.
Besides creating hundreds of IT jobs, acting tough against resellers of pirated software would also add sizeable revenue to the GDP, besides taxes for the country, the sources said.
Some of the steps, suggested by the IDC in its report, include establishing a clear and consistent legal framework, applying legislation with dedicated resources, increasing public awareness and extending co-operation at the domestic and international levels.
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