In South Africa, the day was marked with two raids on dealers in Durban suspected of selling illegal software. Other activities include intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partners, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates.
“Software piracy and counterfeiting is a sophisticated, global trade with a damaging impact on consumers, businesses and economies, and we are committed to working with other stakeholders to stay a step ahead of this illegal industry,” said Charl Everton, the anti-piracy manager at Microsoft SA.
“We're working with national governments, local law enforcement agencies and our customer and partner communities to identify international connection points between software pirates and counterfeiters. The aim is to help stop them in their tracks and protect consumers and legitimate businesses from this illegal trade.”
Guy Sebban, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said the global trade in fakes threatens consumers, businesses and the economy.
“It will only be possible to halt counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale through this kind of collaboration between governments and the private sector — both to educate people about the value of intellectual property and to take action against trade in illicit products,” he said.
John Newton of Interpol's IP Rights Project says there is growing evidence that highly organised, transnational criminal organizations and networks are involved in the counterfeiting of software and other goods.
“This is a global problem with global sources of supply; this is why we need to work together — the public and the private sectors — to stop this trade,” said Newton.
In South Africa, one third of PCs contain unlicensed, pirated or counterfeit software. As technological advances expand opportunities for criminal syndicates to manufacture and distribute fakes, it is clear that piracy and counterfeiting pose a real and growing threat to intellectual property and innovation.
The piracy of business applications in South Africa cost commercial software publishers almost R2,3 billion last year. Estimates suggest that reducing piracy by 10 percentage points over four years could generate an extra 1 200 jobs in the local IT sector, R6 billion in local industry revenue and R490 million in additional tax revenues.
“By addressing this illegal activity, Microsoft is helping to level the playing field for legitimate dealers who are harmed when illegal sales cut into their business, and ensure that consumers receive the full value of licensed, genuine products,” said Everton.
For example, in September, a Port Elizabeth computer shop manager, Vikesh Singh, was arrested for selling counterfeit Microsoft software following a raid by the SAPS Commercial Crime Unit on his store, PE Technologies. And earlier this year, Microsoft reached settlements totalling hundreds of thousands of rands with 21 local computer dealers selling computers loaded with unlicensed copies of the company's software.
“Knowing Microsoft is targeting resellers of illegal software gives me one less thing to worry about,” said Mornay Durant of The IT Department, a Johannesburg-based small business specialist.
“When the economy is struggling, it is difficult to focus on adding value to your customers when other organizations are using unfair practices to gain an advantage, especially when it comes to pricing of software.”
Apart from the continued negative impact on economies and legitimate businesses, illegal software poses a significant risk to consumers as well. Counterfeit software exposes users to an increased risk of viruses, worms and other damaging code, including spyware and Trojan horses. Customers expect to receive genuine, high-quality software, but counterfeit copies often contain malicious code and/or malware and fail to operate properly, said Everton.
“This can present a significant risk of security breaches and lost business data, damaged reputation, and the need to invest thousands of rand to recover from incidents of malicious software on individual workstations,” she added.
“Our genuine software initiative is aimed at helping people understand and avoid the risks of using counterfeit software. For example, online validation tools for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office make it easy for people to verify whether their software is genuine. Should the software end up being counterfeit, customers are provided with information on what they can do to secure a legitimate copy.”
To see where anti-piracy activities are being conducted, click here.
