The outlay for licensed computer software is only 5-6 percent of the gross operating budget of a business, which is inexpensive compared with costs that arise from using illegal software. This is according to Mr Tarun Sawney, Senior Director of Antipiracy-Asia-Pacific for BSA, The Software Alliance. Nam Pham reports.
What exactly are the benefits to a business in using licensed software?
Using legal software can be beneficial to corporate users in many ways, but the greatest of all s the lower legal risk involved. Users also receive legal and technical support, protection from viruses and so on. Moreover, software is of monumental importance to businesses in governance, management, production, marketing, public relations and so on. But more importantly, software helps companies to improve their competitiveness, promote exports, build brand names, and define reputation and transparency for businesses.
You said recently Vietnam has made big improvements in the fight against software piracy. Can you share more detailed information?
Yes. The incidence of piracy was 98 percent ten years ago. It is now down to 81 percent. That’s a huge improvement. Vietnam is seen as having made the strongest and most positive progress in combating the problem. Such progress would not have been possible without the great efforts of various agencies within the Vietnamese government, organizations and industry. While the numbers remain high compared to the Asia-Pacific average (60 percent), this is an encouraging step forward and the local piracy rate will be lowered to the regional level in the near future.
What makes you so confident?
Anti-piracy efforts in Vietnam are relatively well organized. In the last three years, various interested agencies in Vietnam have scrutinized more than 300 companies and tens of thousands of computers. The government of Vietnam has released strong messages on the detrimental effects that may come from the use of illegal software, as well as the benefits of using legal applications. I believe this is a good launch pad to dramatically bring down the piracy rate.
Six foreign companies raided recently were found to have pirated software worth VND10 billion. Could you tell us more about the raids?
The action was conducted by the Vietnam inspectorate. Once the inspectors expose the companies using illegal software, they will inform us so that we can reach out to them in order to help them become legal. Of the six audited firms, one is a Taiwanese company working in sports footwear; a Japanese company in software application development; a Korean company producing apparel accessories and plastic/metal bags; a Vietnamese-British joint venture company specializing in medicine, chemical and pharmacy research and production; a Chinese-owned manufacturer of air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and electronics; an Australian-owned provider of applications and document management solutions. So you can see that companies ranging from all sectors are breaking the laws.
We learned that BSA has launched the latest version of the Verafirm portal in Vietnam. What benefits does it bring to businesses in Vietnam?
Yes, we launched the Verafirm system more than two months ago. Verafirm is a global registration tool for legal software that helps businesses to register and manage their software assets. Companies that register their legitimate software at https://www.verafirm.org will receive global verification that they comply with prevailing intellectual property laws and ethics. Businesses can imprint the verification stamp on their websites. The site also provides a source of references for purchasing companies that are looking to maintain a supply chain of high ethical standards.
Đăng ký: VietNam News