Column

Last week, a US court fined Jammie Thomas-Rasset of Minnesota $1.9 million for breaking the stringent copyright law to download 24 songs from the internet. The cost of each song was around 99 cents, but the court fined $80,000 for every copyright violation.

The seriousness shown by courts abroad in dealing with copyright violation and piracy cases has some effect on the native dispensation too. The Delhi high court last month accepted Adobe’s plea and ordered another software concern accused of using its applications without licence or authority to hand over passwords to a commissioner investigating the case.

In another decision, the court, by an interim measure, ordered Pantaloon to stop playing music prepared and owned by Indian Performing Right Society, at its two outlets in Delhi’s malls.

Computer, internet and cell phone users’ growing demand poses a major challenge to anti-piracy authorities and law enforcement agencies. An anti-cyber crime bureau is in place, but dearth of technical knowhow results in embarrassment to the sleuths.

The monetary value of unlicensed software — “losses” to manufacturers — broke the $50 billion mark for the first time. Worldwide losses grew by 11% to 53 billion in non-adjusted dollars.

There’s a legitimate PC software market of $88 billion in 2008, and a personal computer market of $244 billion.

An International Data Corporation and Business Software Alliance study in 2008 predicted that lowering PC software piracy in India by 10 points over four years could generate an additional 43,000 jobs, $200 million in tax revenues and an additional $2.7 billion in revenues to local vendors.

It must not be forgotten that PC software piracy in India was 68% in 2008, a one-point drop from 2007. However, dollar losses caused by it rose to 2.7 billion from 2 billion.
The new government that rests high hope on information technology to achieve the ambitious goal of eradication of illiteracy and hunger must gear up to meet the challenge.