It has been reported that the Government of Karnataka has declared
that the State Government would be a “zero piracy organisation” and also
make Bangalore, the knowledge capital of the country, as “zero piracy territory”
by March 2002. A special post of a "Compliancy Officer" has been contemplated
to implement this plan.
With this announcement, Karnataka has become the first state not
only in India but the entire Asia-Pacific region to take serious steps
for combating software piracy. No doubt that this would be music to the
ears of MNCs who will now try to get similar assurances from Chandrababu
Naidu and other CMs as a pre-condition to any developmental investments
in their states.
In the last two years, the cost of Computers had been coming down and
it was envisaged that more and more common people would afford to buy home
computers. It is necessary for the public to now rethink on their home
computerisation plan since keeping updated versions of licensed software
will not come cheap and if they are not prepared to pay the price the legal
consequences can be disastrous. It would therefore be better for many to
go without computers than take the risk of their children loading a software
which is not licensed and causing them trouble.
It is also necessary for Business and IT enthusiasts to settle for lower
growth rates in the coming days since increasing costs will freeze Computer
purchase plans of organisations.
Judging by the previous case of MNC s using "Copyright" as a "Tool to
Build monopoly in Training", the move of the Karnataka Government will
also force freezing of capacities in IT training and raising of costs which
will have a long term impact on development of IT skills in Bangalore.
Even though, the move of the Karnataka Government needs to be appreciated
in the interest of preserving a law abiding society, there is need to use
this opportunity to remind the Government to introspect on the measures
it needs to take to eliminate the "Root Cause" of "Software Piracy".
The main cause for growth of Software piracy is that the "Price"
is not in tune with the "Perceived Benefit" . If this Software Piracy
has to be eliminated, it is necessary to address this issue.
This situaton has also been contributed by "Monopolies"
preventing competition to develop cheaper products and that there is no
encouragement for "Indigenous Software Developers" in India to develop
alternatives to expensive MNC products.
The Government as a representative of the people has a responsibility
to address these issues. I suggest that the Karnataka Government will dedicate
this year's IT.Com to deliberate on the issue of "Alternate Strategies
to Reduce Software Piracy".
I invite suggestions from the public to be sent to naavi.org for
consolidation and presentation to the Karnataka Government.
Naavi
June 8, 2001
Comments and Suggestions can be sent
to Naavi