The global economic recession may be pushing up software piracy levels in Nigeria and other developing nations , a study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) and Business Software Alliance (BSA) indicates.This exposes more and more Nigerians to prosecution, slows the growth of the sector and deprives government of taxes which accrue from licensed software.
John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC, observed that consumers with reduced spending power may hold on to computers longer, which would tend to increase piracy because consumers are more likely than other types of PC users to load unlicensed software on older computers. The study adds that pocketbook pressures are also spurring sales of inexpensive "netbooks" and laptops, which tend to come with legitimate pre-loaded software; and spurring businesses to implement software asset management (SAM) programmes to increase efficiencies and lower IT costs.
The fair side of the coin in Nigeria, is that a handful of banks, PC companies and vendors have come up with instalmental payment shemes on PCs and laptops , which come with legal software and internat access. These schemes which have been going on and expanding for upwards of two years, have been encouraging the purchase of legal software and growing internet penetration. Global software giants, Microsoft, has been keying into these schemes to further promote the sales of licensed sortware here.
In Nigeria, formal sector PC sales are put at about 250,000 annually while it is estimated that for every PC sold in the formal market, 15 are sold in the informal market. This puts annual informal market PC sector sales estimates at 3.75 million and the total annual figures for formal and informal market PC sales in the country at four million units.
It is further observed that more almost all of the PCs and laptops bought in the informal market are run on pirated software.
While a unit of licensed operating systems cost about N50,000, the pirated version of the same would cost about N300.
Microsoft and the local arm of the BSA in Nigeria have repeatedly advised Nigerians to use only licensed software so as to avoid litigation and to help grow the local industry and generate taxes for the country.
"Reduced buying power is only one of many factors affecting software piracy," Gantz says in the first half study reort for 2009. "The economic crisis will have an impact - part of it negative, part of it positive - but it may not become fully apparent until the 2009 figures come in."
Among other factors affecting PC software piracy, the global spread of Internet access is driving up piracy, with IDC projecting 460 million new Internet users coming online in emerging markets in the next five years. Growth in the number of consumers and small businesses will also bring more high-piracy users into the fold.
On the positive side, factors contributing to falling piracy rates include legalization programmess offered by software vendors and governments; public-private partnerships in education and enforcement, including BSA's anti-piracy initiatives; new software distribution models such as "cloud computing"; the influence of compacts such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Community; and better technical protection measures such as digital rights management.
