Order, Order

The news might have gone un-noticed, but the Delhi High Court has ordered a

local trader in Nehru Place, Delhi, to pay about Rs 24 lakh to Microsoft for

illegally loading Microsoft packages on the systems they were assembling and

selling. According to industry watchers, this is the highest ever penalty

slapped in the history of Indian IT.

While I am very happy to know that at least one such case has been caught and

brought to justice, I have my own long wish list, without which I believe there

is not going to be much progress in this battle. The celebration will be very

shortlived. Here, I must remind all my readers that there are thousands and

thousands of such dealers bundling illegal software, in every nook and corner of

the country. If the industry thinks the Indian police and judicial system can

catch and convict every one of them, it is not in touch with reality.

IBRAHIM AHMAD Create the right environment for Indians across all sections to themselves become owners for IP they create

I would also like to add here another fact. Using illegal software, by and

large, is not considered a bad thing in India. We do not see this as a crime or

theft, but as borrow, copy, download, replicate and so on. Obviously, there is

also a big population of users, which does not even know that there is anything

called software license fee.

I have a firm belief that new and out-of-the-box thinking, and some bold

steps are needed for a country like India, which is a huge market, rapidly

growing, highly price sensitive, and does not mind using illegal software. My

wish list to fight this menace, which many vendors earlier ignored because they

thought this was market development, is short and simple. And I am sure it will

yield faster results, and there will be more people supporting the cause of

using licensed or paid software.

First, the monitoring agencies, including BSA, should also focus on the

users, who many a times pressurize vendors to bundle pirated software, if they

want to pick the order. These users include large, well-known and highly

respected organizations, Indian as well as MNC. This way the demand side of this

problem will also be challenged. And when big companies will be raided, the

smaller ones will get strong messages.

Second, BSA should work on getting the legal community and the police force

on their side. Traditionally, both these communities are always looking for

opportunities where their services are required. If the police and the lawyers

come to know that illegal software is rampant, and there is money to be made

from this, their level of involvement and support will go up automatically.

Obviously, there is likely to be a negative fall-out of this, but that will have

to be handled separately. Undue harassment is the last thing anyone wants.

Similarly, there will be lots of people who champion causes like this. If some

kind of a community could be built of such people, maybe on-line, that can be of

great help.

The next item on my list of action-plan is creating the right environment for

Indians, across all sections, to themselves become owners for the IP they

create. I am sure everybody is aware that while the whole world sees India as a

place of a big pool of intellectual capital, if one sees the record of patents

or copyrights filed by Indians-either individually or as an organization-it's

pathetic. I believe that if more and more Indians start filing and owning IP,

they will become bigger supporters of IP protection.

Last, but perhaps the most important, is the challenge to educate the growing

number of PC users, a big portion of which will be the young school and college

students. I am not too sure how far educational and awareness campaigns will

work with hardy users who have always used illegal software. But I am sure that

the young generation that is now going to become IT users, can and will

understand the importance of paying for intellectual property.

The author is Editor of Dataquest ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in