You must have heard of the 30 days amnesty period by Kenya Copyright Board with the support of Microsoft, during which software retailers and resellers can “come clean” and start using or selling genuine products. Ok, it is time for people to repent and their sins will be forgiven. So if you are reading this post and you are using a computer with pirated software from whatever place you got it…stop there and own up. Check if you have the genuine software at buygenuine.co.ke
Since the time this amnesty was announced, I have thought about the whole issue of software pirating, I have debated it in my head and tried to write a number posts about it. Unfortunately all those posts are unfinished, call them unpublished drafts. Now the time has come for me to start publishing them in the next coming days. The main reason has been the nagging fact in my head that the main culprits when comes to software piracy are so called “techies”. Look at it closely, who exactly is responsible for the high rate of software piracy in Kenya. Is it the end users or is it the retailers and resellers or is the software developers themselves like Microsoft?
The normal non techie users of the software normally head to the shop to buy or ask the advice from the little techie friend or office mate where to get the software. It is safe to assume that the techies play a big role here whether through the advise or working at the retailers of the software. In the end many computer users in Kenya acquire software through illegal means — such as buying a single license for a software and then installing it on multiple machines, or downloading programs from peer-to-peer networks —yeah torrenting. Take for example Windows XP or Windows 7 or Office 2007, you can get them easily from the PirateBay but how safe are they? Among others pirated software can lead to an introduction of a computer virus on your computer , loss of personal data and even cause the user’s computer to crash. ..Oh dear.
As software developer, I personally understand the huge amount of work it takes to develop a software. With that amount of work it is only fair if you can get financial reward for your hard work. According to Business Software Alliance (BSA), 41 % of all software in use is pirated.
Back to these torrenting business, i know many are guilty here..movies, music, books . Some people argue that most pirated software like Photoshop are damn expensive for the average consumer . And so the only option remaining for them is to pirate. Ok if that is the case, how come people do the same for the things like Music , movies and books which are reasonably cheaper when bought online!
At least we have seen people sympathizing with the musicians and Kenyan artists when their work are pirated but not with software/web developers. In my line of work, i have met many people who do not understand why software developer or web designer should be well paid for their work. SMH. Somebody should explain to such people that it cost a huge a mount of money to train and become a computer programmer or designer and developing a software is not a joke.
Then there is the issue of the Economy..I read somewhere the report of IDC , according to that report if Kenya’s current 79 percent software piracy rate was reduced by 10 percentage points over four years, it would create an additional 977 local IT jobs and contribute US$73.60 million to Kenya’s GDP. According to IDC, that represents an increase in total revenue for the local IT industry of US$40.01 million and additional revenue for the government of US$7.18 million in taxation.
——–
Tweet @kachwanya on Twitter, Like the our Facebook fan page ..you have something to say send us email on [email protected]
Wazi!
The topic no one wants to talk about…
Piracy
Wazi!
The topic no one wants to talk about…
Piracy
Yes, unfortunately it is done by people who should be mad about it. The Kenyan techies should clearly come out and discuss the issue..
There could be some innocent parties e.g those who bought software pre-loaded on computers, or assured by the sales person that the software they were sold was genuine
We recently had a class on professional ethics and information engineering and the topic of discussion was software piracy. The debate was so intense and I understood the argument of some chinese guys in our class. For so long us we still have loopholes in our laws and technologies, the war against piracy cannot be won in practice. On paper, it can be won but in reality, lets evaluate this 20 years from now and you will realize it will not change a single bit. The biggest culprit is of course the P2P technologies which apparently is also the framework of the greatest apps we have today. The skypes, fbs, twitters, youtube….bla bla bla all rely on a P2P framework. May be the techies are the main perpetrators of software piracy in Kenya but here, the users are the main culprits and sooner or later Kenyan users will also be there and the war will be even more complex. I can assure you one thing, even if we have laws and systems to fight this illegal craft, responsibility is hard to impart on individual users and the techies alike. A user can always find a way to go around it if they wish to do so. For example, one guy argued that “the laws in japan are so strict on software piracy, but whats so hard with getting a copy of the software you need from a friend in China?” In my opinion, as long as we still condone this school of thought, then piracy is here to stay.
I also think there many innocent parties who end up with pirated software. Many shops selling computers in Nairobi pre-load them with Windows XP or Windows 7 and other essential software. The buyers never stop to ask whether the software they are being given are genuine or not. I think the main target for the Copyright Board and Microsoft are those selling computers with pre-loaded software
With advancement in technology like P2P networks, the fight against intellectual property theft is becoming complicated. Agree, and i think P2P framework could even make it worst. At the same time we can not do away with this piece of technology . It makes file sharing easy and when you look at the new technologies like Skype which are almost based on the same concept then you start to accept that piracy is here to stay.
i bought my comp with an original xp cd..then it died so i bought anaa machine and installed it..is that pirating??
The problem is partly distribution. Apparently, I can’t buy any music on iTunes from Kenya, and good luck trying to find that original CD from your local store. If getting music is a problem, try movies.
Secondly pricing. You can get Kaspersky for as little as Kshs 2,000 per year. They understood the market and priced it accordingly.
In some industries, piracy has actually helped. As a matter of fact, Adobe actually ENCOURAGES piracy: http://www.devlounge.net/column/piracy-adobe%E2%80%99s-best-friend
Then again, I do not advocate for software piracy. If you can’t afford it, then it was not meant for you
That is a bit tricky ..i think It is pirating if the license for the cd is meant for one computer. The second computer you bought should also have come with its own cd
I realized that pirating Music , Movies and Games is legal in Switzerland and the Government believe that the same people pirating end up spending the money in buying the original and attending the concerts. ..Check my latest post http://www.kachwanya.com/2011/12/05/is-legalising-pirating-of-software-music-movies-and-games-the-best-way-to-fight-piracy/
How about a more lasting solution…Use Free, Libre and Open Source Software, and you won’t have to worry about M$ or “piracy”
Also pray tell, how the hell does one pirate the work of a web dev?
There is this somewhat daft presumption out there that everyone wants to steal software and music just because its free-forgetting that there are risks associated with unsigned or unverified applications. No one wants viruses and malware. Piracy is a messy game of Russian roulette; yet everyday hundreds-if not thousands- of users take the risk of getting their machines infected because they;
a) Cannot access the legitimate content/ software easily (MMK mentioned the iTunes example) due to outmoded/ silly distribution models clogged by greedy lawyers and highly incompetent marketing folk.
b) Cannot afford the legitimate content due to exorbitant pricing. Really. How is it that a designer is supposed to buy industry standard software from Adobe at those prices?
Companies like Sidefx (Makers of Houdini) have a more progressive view, creating a full fledged version of their software and selling it at a marked down price in order to make things easier for users who are just beginning. It could be argued that for users getting out of college or university, they could purchase the much cheaper student licences for Adobe products but that’s an inconvenient workaround.
The content/ software distributors should stop griping and bend over backwards to make their products accessible or affordable; set up easy payment schemes with banks if they have to.
As for software users, there are always open source or cheaper alternatives that are almost just as good as the mainstream software. Libre office is a case in point. Start off with the cheaper or more affordable software, and then switch over to the mainstream when you’re ready. There is no point in taking needless risks with your valuable equipment and data while we have http://www.alternativeto.net