If Software Piracy has to be reduced, one of the steps that the Government
has to take is to remove whatever incentive is encouraging
Piracy.
Piracy breeds on the fact that the official price of most of the software
is "perceived" as high by a large section of the market. This may be because
the Rupee value of the international price of the software as compared
to say the per capita income of an average Indian could be high. For example,
US $ 500 may not be a high price for an USA buyer of a software. But Rs
24,000 in the Indian context could be considered by many users as substantial.
The second reason why a user may find the price unreasonable is that
his usage may not need the level of expenditure that is required to buy
the official software. For example, for the number of times a non
professional user may require to use "Photoshop", the official price
may be un economical. If however the user is a professional Desk
Top Publisher, he may not mind the cost.
If the above hypothesis has any validity, then we need to identify the
steps required to be taken by the Government to address these issues.
The first step required to be taken by the Government is to reduce
the cost of software to the consumer by various means. Presently the only
measure taken by the Government is to exempt import duties for software
imports. This is not an adequate measure since the basic international
price of the software itself is too high for Indian income standards.
We need to therefore examine if we can develop "Alternative Software"
for our use wherever feasible. While it may be too ambitious to expect
that we will find a substitute for Windows as an operating system software,(
inspite of the growing popularity of Linux), it may not be difficult to
find replacements for many other application software if some efforts are
spared.
For example "Star Office" may be a good replacement for Microsoft Office.
Can Government departments be suggested to switch over? Or
in the context of Government usage, use of "Baraha"
for word processing in regional languages could meet most of he needs
of the Government departments. Should we not make its use mandatory?
Apart from harnessing such readily available "Open Source
Software" for various applications , the Government should invest money
and manpower to encourage "Open Source Initiatives" and "Low Cost Indigenous
Development of Software".
The public in Karnataka and elsewhere are keen to know the measures
that have been taken by the Governments for initiatives such as the following..
Setting up of a "Research and Development Fund"
to provide assistance for software development and patenting.
Appointment of an "Open Source Initiative Promotion officer"
to coordinate with international organizations dedicated to this concept
and establish an Indian initiative in this regard
Conducting of seminars and discussions to share views of
experts in the field on how to reduce the dependence of the common man
on "Licensed Software"
Setting up of specialized financial institutions for the purpose of
financing software developers at a subsidised cost..etc.
Obviously, the Government thinks that in the Market oriented economy, its
role in protecting and encouraging the industry in any form is limited.
This excuse though popular, lets indigenous talents to be plundered by
MNCs . This would be harmful to our interests in the long run.
Unfortunately, this issue is beyond the comprehension of our politicians
and they are unable to protect the community from the dangers of this exploitation
. We need more people like Mr Gurumurthy to analyse and explain how developed
countries are hoodwinking our politicians and getting their trade interests
served.(Example: Read this article in Indian Express about mis
interpretation of WTO provisions by Indian officials).
Large successful software companies in the private sector who
have made money by exporting Indian software talents in the global markets
have not taken any concrete initiatives through Industry bodies to support Indigenous software
companies interested in building branded packages.
Nasscom which should have addressed itself to this task, appears to
be more interested in creating a conducive atmosphere for MNCs to come to
India and is not keen on encouraging local developers who may become competitors
to them. Many of the State Governments are also lost in this gamesmanship
of inviting MNC s to set up shop in India and initiatives such as "Zero
Piracy State" etc. are nothing but gimmicks to please this segment of international
Software Companies. This is the repeat of the Indian history when our forefathers invited East India Company
and its contemporaries to set up Trading facilities in India which later developed into colonies.
It is therefore necessary for Karnataka Government which has declared
its intention to be a "Zero Piracy State" to also take some initiatives
that would support and encourage indigenous development of low cost software
and also initiate policies where by Government departments increase their
usage of "Open Source" software wherever possible. These and related issues
should be the focus of discussion in this year's IT.com at Bangalore.
Naavi
June 10, 2001
Comments and Suggestions can be sent
to Naavi