Software piracy costing Middle East billions

Analysis by the BSA and research firm IDC shows that reducing the software piracy rate in a country by 10 points over four years could earn the local IT sector an extra $302m and would generate almost a thousand jobs in IT.

Companies operating in the region have to work hard to keep piracy figures involving their software down. One such company is Adobe which has software working across numerous sectors. Naser Samaenah, regional license compliance manager, Adobe Systems Middle East tells AMEinfo.com: "Piracy is an important issue and we are taking all paths to prevent out customers from having illegal software.

"The challenges that we see is that people don't respect IPR law. That is according to the research and the interviews we did with a lot of companies across the region. They are not respecting the IPR law and a consequence of that is using illegal software or under licensing products," reports Samaenah.

Middle East governments working with IT firms

The BSA itself is represented strongly in the Middle East and the organisation is working closely with governments and companies in order to counter the problem. "We are working very closely with governments in the region and we have a lot of joint initiatives and campaigns, now we have one in the UAE, one in Qatar very soon we will have one in Kuwait and through BSE we have three campaigns running at the same time and it's all about creating awareness and education," Jawad Al Redha, co-chair, Gulf region, Business Software Alliance tells AMEinfo.com.

One accusation which is aimed at software companies is that piracy is being encouraged by overpricing of their products. However, Al Redha believes this is not an issue. "The price is not an issue, it's not an excuse because we have a lot of members who are suffering from piracy of their software and at the same time we see their product is not expensive and people can afford it. Even with some products where maybe they are a little bit more expensive than other software, still those who are generating money off it illegally don't have an excuse, this is the law. You have to respect the law. It is the law of the country and all should comply and respect it."

Schemes in place to stop illegal software downloads

There are many schemes and initiatives in place in order to attempt to curb the use of illegal software, but only a handful appear to be effective. Adobe believes it has some of the more useful practices in place. "Adobe decided to have a dedicated person, myself, to look after license compliance in the region," Samaenah reveals. "I'm here dedicating 100% of my time to work closely with the government, to educate customers, to work closely with the BSA and to stop street vendors selling illegal software. So 100% of my time is dedicated to that and I'm here to work to achieve this."

The firm also attempts to encourage its customers which have encountered pirated software to report it to Adobe, so it can then pass on the information to the police. "We encourage customers that would like to engage with us in fighting piracy and they understand the risks to report those online sites. We have a mechanism in place to stop those sites [which offer illegal software] and prevent them from reaching our customers," says Samaenah.

Middle East looking to improve piracy figures

The problem of software piracy is a tough one to tackle, the major factors behind the issue are ones of public attitudes rather than one of technology. In fact there seems to be no solution to eradicate it completely, as those in the piracy industry appear capable of circumnavigating every new method of prevention which is introduced. Despite this, Al Redha has high hopes for the future.

"In the Middle East I wish we'd see a big drop. This drop will help the governments, the businesses, the consumers and will create opportunities for software developers and additional companies and students trying to find jobs. All this will be created by respect for IPR laws," he concludes.