`Half of Korea Software Illegal
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
The prevalent software piracy in Korea and other Asian nations is damaging their software industry as well as the entire economy, a representative of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said yesterday.
Jeffrey Hardee, vice president and regional director of BSA, said that about 45 percent of computer programs in use in offices were illegal copies in Korea in 2006, citing a report from research firm IDC. He said efforts to root out the piracy will bring seen and unseen benefits to the economy.
``The study demonstrated a 10-point drop in piracy over a four-year period can add an additional $1.4 billion to the economy. That is certainly an achievable target,’’ he said in an interview with The Korea Times Wednesday.
``For every $1 of software sold, it has a multiplier effect of $1 to $3 in the local industry, among channel and service providers. So the local contribution is nearly $1 billion out of $1.4 billion. $1 billion will stay in the country.’’
The BSA is a lobby group representing global software makers, such as Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Cisco Systems, SAP and McAfee. Its mission is to encourage governments to better protect copyright of software in each country and to raise public awareness on the issue. The interview was held at Microsoft Korea’s office in southern Seoul.
According to Hardee and the IDC report, the pirated software programs, whether they are local- or foreign-made, were valued at $440 million in Korea. In the Asian-Pacific region, the piracy rate was 55 percent, amounting to $11 billion if they were legally purchased.
Piracy on intellectual property such as software, music and movies has been relatively more abundant in Korea than in North America or Western European countries, though the situation is much worse in China, Southeast Asia and especially in Eastern Europe.
Popular programs such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop are easily downloadable through many peer-to-peer sites and Web storage services for small fees.
While companies and the government are tightening the monitoring of online and offline channels of piracy, many customers, especially small-sized enterprises, have complained that the prices of software are too high in Korea. Many argued that it is unfair for global firms like Microsoft to price their products at the same level in Korea as in the United States while Koreans earn much less than Americans in general.
Hardee played down such claims. ``We hear the same arguments in Bangladesh and in other places,’’ he said, noting that it would be unfair for the software firms if they don’t get rewarded for their creation, and firms that buy legal copies if their competitors can save costs on illegal software.
The piracy rate remained almost the same from 2005 to 2006 in Korea, but the overall situation in Asia is rapidly improving for the BSA, Hardee said. ``Of 15 countries in the region, 11 did have a reduction in piracy levels. The trend is good, it’s on a decline.’’
The IDC authored the global piracy report by conducting surveys on randomly selected computers found in offices, and counting the number of legal and illegal programs, and by calculating the difference between supply and demand of software in a country.