Pirated software can prove perilous

New Zealand has the second lowest rate of software piracy in the world. A mere 23 per cent of software used in this country last year hasn't been properly paid for.

Number one on the honesty list is the United States, at 21 per cent. Our Australian cousins at 31 per cent rank at 14th on the third annual Global Software Piracy Study prepared by research company International Data Corporation for the Business Software Alliance, an organization representing major vendors like Adobe and Microsoft.

Vietnam continues to top the list of pirates with 90 per cent of software used there being illegal. The good news for the vendors, given the huge size of its market, is that the percentage of illegal software in use in China is dropping, from 92 per cent in 2003 to 86 per cent last year. Russians also got better about paying for programs, dropping from 87 per cent to 83 per cent.

Mark Phibbs, the Asia Pacific marketing director for Adobe, says most of the piracy problem in New Zealand is in the home, with people using software copied from a mate.

"Not many businesses today use pirate software. It is too dangerous to their reputation," Phibbs says.

There are also alternatives people can use. While print professionals may still need a full Adobe program like Photoshop or Acrobat to prepare photographs or documents for publication, casual users can find cheaper or free, stripped-down alternatives to tweak their images.

Indeed, Apple is making a point of bundling extremely powerful sound and image manipulation tools with its machines, as part of its strategy of becoming an essential part of the digital home.

"Generally piracy works where there is a broad-based product with a strong brand, so it is worthwhile to copy," Phibbs says.

Where software vendors often pick up piracy is at the support and upgrade stage.

Because software needs to be registered, asking for help for a copied program can cause embarrassment.

"People now realise that pirate software can cause them a lot of hassle," Phibbs says.

While he says most companies here are honest, Adobe is cracking down on those who aren't, giving them until June 30 to legitimise their software.

The sorts of practices it is concerned about include:

* Sharing or copying fonts beyond the terms of its licence agreement, including supplying corporate fonts to customers or service providers who don't own their own copy of those fonts;

* Loading an application for which a single licence is held onto more than one machine, or onto a network server that can be accessed by multiple machines;

* Using Acrobat Distiller on a server.

The crackdown could affect printers who receive jobs from clients with fonts attached. According to the Adobe licence terms, they need to have their own copies of the fonts before they can roll the presses.

Microsoft New Zealand chief technology officer Brett Roberts says the company is coming across fewer cases of deliberate piracy in this country,

"New Zealanders tend to respect intellectual property rights," Roberts says.

"There is accidental piracy where people buy a PC with a pirated operating system or illegally bundled applications on it."

He says that opens the buyer up to world of risk.

"If it is a genuine product, there are quality control processes in place to make sure bugs and nasties are not on it.

"Our experience is that PC vendors load pirate software onto machines to increase their margins are not too careful about what goes on," Roberts says.

People buying new PCs or second-hand PCs with pre-loaded software should ask for the appropriate certificates of authenticity to go with them.

"The critical thing is customers getting what they thought they paid for," Roberts says.

While Microsoft won't refuse patches or security upgrades to unlicensed copies of its operating system, it does try to get people to sign up to a licensing regime, Windows Genuine Advantage, with additional benefits.

One reason New Zealand has a low piracy rate is the policies of auction site Trade Me, which tries to be tough on dodgy dealers.

Trade Me's spokesperson Christine Turner says the community watch feature, which allows members to bring suspicious items to the intention of Trade Me's team, means it is quick to pick up the phoneys.

One the commercial side, licensing management is becoming increasingly common, cutting down opportunities for error.

Accordo Group specialises in auditing software holdings and acting as a customer advocate in dealings with vendors.

Accordo director Vicky McCulloch describes software licensing as a "black art" which few companies have a handle on - either neglecting to carry enough licences for what they use, making them vulnerable to audit, or carrying licences for software or seats they do not use.

www.microsoft.com.howtotell/

www.adobe.com.hk/aboutadobe/antipiracy/avoid.html