| . | Karnataka Home Minister Mr Mallikarjun Kharge has assured MNC software suppliers that the state would be a "Zero Piracy State" by next year and a "Multi Pronged Strategy" is being drafted for the purpose. As could be expected the strategy seems to revolve around "Strengthening the law by amending the Criminal Procedure Code". The declared objective for this exercise is to attract investment in the state by Software producers. Obviously, it appears that this assurance is a pre-condition imposed by some MNCs to increase their investments in the State. It is obvious that the "Multi Pronged Strategy" would basically focus on more "Raids". However, if one recalls the raid on Radiant Software Training centers last month, it appears that the so called strategy could degenerate into unleashing a "Raid Raj" in the state. The Radiant Raid resulted in two innocent employees of the branch being put behind bars for a couple of days. It is also alleged that the EIPR authorities first raided the branch along with some private security personnel and manhandled the employees. The Police appears to have arrived later. It is also reported that the arrested employees were put along with ordinary criminals in the jail and made to undertake menial jobs. The experience has been shattering for both the arrested employees and their families and the responsibility for such ill-treatment lies with the Police and EIPR. If this is the way Software Piracy would be eliminated in India, several IT Employees and their families will have to cool their heels in prison for crimes not committed by them. The first important distinction that the Police and Judiciary should make is to distinguish between "Software Piracy" and "Violation of Copyright license terms". Just to strengthen their case and create dramatic scenes, the Police have a tendency to book cases of "Copyright Violations" as "Piracy" or "Cheating" as they have done in the Radiant Case. I would like any police officer to justify why it was necessary to arrest the managers of Radiant's training managers to investigate the case after the assets had been seized. Can the Police give an assurance to the public that such extreme actions would not be taken for copyright violations? Can Mr Kharge assure the IT Industry that his Police force would not indulge in such actions? If not, the public and the IT industry have to be worried with what is in store for them when the drive for "Zero Piracy State" starts. Every executive in every company will have to now ask his management to give him a personal letter of assurance that any software running on his desk top computer has been duly licensed and he would not be personally responsible for any copyright violations. This in turn would make every CEO and CTO liable for action in the event of any dispute such as say- "a license meant for 186 computers in a company was used on the 187 th machine without extension of the license. " Such CEO s and CTO's will have to carry "Anticipatory Bail" orders against arrests at all times. While appreciating the need for stopping "Software Piracy", the attention of the Government should however be drawn to long term strategies to make Piracy un economical to both the "Pirate" and the "Consumer". The industry has seen a dramatic reduction of pirated copies of Windows since its prices were brought down. The continuation of piracy in other software is to a large extent a result of unreasonable pricing by manufactures. Prices are being determined by them based on their costs and profit requirements rather than the utility value of the software. For example, how many home users can justify the need to buy a Office 2000 paying say around Rs 20,000 which is the cost of the entire hardware system they have bought?. Most offices would find it uneconomical to buy software at such costs. One solution to this is to encourage ASP model of using application software provided the software manufactures don't prohibit such usage. The other more durable solution is to encourage "Competition" so that the market forces would force the prices down. We would like the Government to consider such strategies. For example, consider the case of Karnataka Government. A large part of its requirement would perhaps comprise of word processing in Kannada. Has the Government used or contemplated using the "Baraha" word processing software developed by a Kannadiga and distributed freely by one Mr Sheshadri Vasu?. Have they ever considered the value of such contributions and tried to honour such individuals and encourage them to undertake further R & D to develop the software to meet the full requirements of Kannada administration? Have they evaluated use of "Star Office" or many other low or nil cost substitutes for Microsoft office? Similarly, there are many indigenous entrepreneurs who are developing or are capable of developing application software that can bring down the cost of other "premium" software products that may be marketed by MNCs. Has there been any concerted efforts by the Government to identify such prospects and encourage them?" Has there been any scheme to identify potential Indians in USA, who can develop alternate operating systems or application software with the assurance that Indian Governments would fund the R&D? (After all, there has been no major software product in the world where an Indian is not involved in development.) .....these are some of the questions that indigenous entrepreneurs would like to ask the Governments while discussing the long term strategy for eliminating "Software Piracy". I urge the Karnataka Government to lead the Indian States in setting up a "R&D Fund" to support indigenous efforts to produce branded software applications (compatible with global standards) and make them available at affordable costs to the masses. Related
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Naavi
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