Slashing software prices 'would not stop piracy'
Published: 03 Jul 2003 11:57 BST
Price cuts are not the way to curb software piracy, says a senior executive from anti-piracy group the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
"The BSA believes that the best way to combat software piracy is to effect long-term change by continuously educating businesses that they have to respect intellectual property by using only legal software within their organisation," said Ajay Advani, chair of BSA Malaysia.
"It is by changing mindsets that we achieve the most lasting change. People have to understand that morally and ethically it is wrong to use pirated software," he told CNETAsia. The BSA's members include large firms such as Adobe and Microsoft.
Advani was responding to queries from CNETAsia on the Malaysian government's plans to place software, CDs, DVDs and Video CDs under the same price controls that govern essential items and food such as cooking oil, rice and chillies.
In a previous interview, Jeffrey Hardee, BSA vice president and regional director, Asia Pacific, said he was flatly against lowering prices as means of curbing piracy.
He said that legitimate software makers could never compete with pirates in price, as pirates have almost no costs to recover. In addition, he said that software firms already offer price breaks, such as student discounts and multi-user bundles.
Earlier this week, Malaysia's Bernama news agency reported that authorities are mulling such tough measures after software makers, movie and recording studios had repeatedly declined to lower the prices of their wares.
Certain members of the government believe that the software and recording industries are partly to blame for Malaysia's pariah status as a hotbed of disc piracy, as they set prices too high for ordinary folk to afford.
According to various media reports, the government will meet copyright owners this week to discuss the matter before considering passing it into law.
The Malaysian government has long blamed high prices for helping to fuel piracy. The country, along with other Asian counterparts such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, have been under constant scrutiny by intellectual property rights groups around the world for being breeding grounds for pirated material.
Last month, a Malaysian minister even called for a boycott of legitimate material in a bid to get manufacturers to loosen their iron grip on pricing.
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