Software piracy, despite what the official media claim, has contributed much to the development and progress of many developing countries like India, China and the East Asian nations. Far from robbing people of jobs, depriving government of fiscal revenue, and deterring foreign investors, software piracy has done exactly the opposite.

Software piracy lets millions in the developing nations to use, learn, and be acquainted with the otherwise prohibitive software products. This has resulted in a pool of IT talents to partake the global IT and the Internet revolution. Even those who are not directly involve in IT have benefited from this increasing indispensable knowledge whose usages are now ubiquitous . It is no surprise that India, with its huge pool of IT technicians, is currently the second largest software export country as well as the largest exporter of IT talents. Software piracy has indirectly equipped the people with the essential skills that greatly improve their employment prospects and thereby the economy of the country.

Of course, we cannot deny that such acts have deprived software companies of their rightful revenues. However, copyright law is mostly Common or Civil law. If you violate copyright you would usually get sued, not be charged with a crime. Copyright violation does not equate to stealing. The software companies have every right to track down the perpetuators, but telling the public that it is an act of stealing is technically incorrect.

There may come a stage when software piracy will be detrimental to the economy of a developing nation when indigenous software development becomes a major contributor to its GDP. However, when that time does come, the government can appropriately tighten its copyright laws and mete out harsher punishments.

A too vigilant developing nation about copyright laws will ultimately stand to lose. Giant software companies will not dole out assistance to loser countries. Conversely, they will invest more in nations where piracy is rife. As indigenous IT companies get bigger and IT professionals more affluent, they will ultimately turn to legal copies instead. This means more revenues for software companies.

Software piracy offers an easy-money-making alternative to crime syndicate; hence, abetting and generating wave of organised criminal activities. This argument sounds plausible but not necessary true. During the Prohibition era in the United States in the 1920s, when the 18th Amendment banned the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages, many mafia groups and triads turned to the lucrative bootlegging - illegal selling and manufacturing of liquor - business, there was no evidence that triad-related offenses had increased correspondingly. Contrary to popular belief, people take to crime not of preference but of circumstance. If bootlegging is equally profitable, they would not go around putting bullets into people's brains. Equally true is for the powerful Yazuka, the Japanese mafia, in the 1980s when Japan was building up its financial bubble. The gangsters spent more time monitoring stock prices than knifing people and trafficking women and children. Software piracy may not be legitimate but is definitely a lesser evil when compared with extortion, forced prostitution, and drug trafficking.

Leo Kee Chye

12 March 2003