On high alert

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There has been a marked rise in the number of vendors clamping down on software piracy during the past couple of years. Violators have been raided, businesses targeted and governments pressured to catch perpetrators.

The UAE, a market firmly in the BSA's sights, has seen an aggressive awareness campaign waged through the media. It is time to take stock of these manoeuvres and ask what the channel can do to help rid the business of this severely detrimental influence.

Margins for the channel in the Middle East software sector are healthy in comparison to other highly commoditised arenas, especially when it comes to systems integrators that offer solutions and services around operating systems and enterprise software. But the margins, and indeed the business, of channel players who count on computer software as a key way of making a living could be even better.

According to figures from research house IDC, the software piracy rate in the UAE currently stands at around 35%. The analyst firm also reveals, quite unequivocally, that was there to be even a minor reduction in the piracy rate, there would be a pronounced impact on the UAE's economy.

Spending on IT would significantly increase and hundreds of jobs would be created. According to IDC, just a 10 percentage point drop in software piracy in the UAE would deliver the emirates an extra 710 new jobs, garner a further US$40m in tax revenues and inspire US$240m in economic growth. More importantly, IDC's findings suggest "services and channel firms" would be the organisations most at benefit from such a reduction.

That is in the UAE, supposedly the most developed or mature market in the region. However, in countries which suffer from under regulation it is highly likely that the benefits of slashing software piracy by even a small amount would be even more extensive.

One problem, as far as IDC sees it, is not just that piracy exists and is severely tainting the IT software and services landscape, but that people are not aware of its extent. It was suggested, only last year, that regionally the market for illegal software is larger than that for legal software. And despite the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance's (AAA) persistence, that situation is unlikely to change dramatically.

"The discrepancy between the perceived and actual value of software piracy demonstrates the immense lack of awareness to software usage, responsibility and management," said Julian Swan, director of compliance marketing EMEA for the BSA. "Organisations are encouraged to manage operational risks seriously and this must include the threat of using illegal software," he added.

What is most clear from a channel perspective is that it is the honest and authorised resellers that stand to gain the most from tackling software piracy. The incentives are there, without doubt.

But whose responsibility is it to grapple with software piracy? Is it the vendors who have the funds to launch the concerted efforts needed to cut rates? Or perhaps, it is dedicated authorities such as the BSA and the AAA, who have already been highly influential, that should bear the brunt of the responsibility?

What comes out in the next few pages - as we talk to representatives from all tiers of the software spectrum - is that the channel has an active and influential role to play as well.

Whether it is the distributor whose already highly-pressurised margins are threatened by the supply of illegal software or the reseller that offers the breadth and locality to be so effective at ousting pirates, one thing's for sure: the channel has a duty to take a stand.

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