According to the data quoted by analytical company IDC in the study made by International Business Software Alliance (BSA), reducing the PC software piracy rate in Ukraine by 10 percentage points by 2013 would lead to the growth of GDP in amount of half a milliard USD.
As the study shows, Ukrainian economy will gain as soon as the government begins the control over piracy. The calculations are the following. Reducing the PC software piracy rate in Ukraine by 10 percentage points in four years would deliver: $586 million in new economic activity. To realize the weight of such virtual money, the researchers indicate its equivalent – four-year salary of 38 thousand teachers in Ukraine.
Front-loading the benefits by reducing software piracy 10 points in the first two years of the same four-year period compounds the economic benefits by at least 29 percent, delivering: $755 million in new economic activity and $116 million in new tax revenues to support essential local services.
The conclusions show that concerted action to reduce software piracy in Ukraine should be a priority.
BSA’s blueprint for reducing software piracy involves five key steps:
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To increase public education about the value of intellectual property (IP) and the business value of software asset management (SAM) to manage software licenses.
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To implement the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty to create an effective legislative environment for copyright protection, online and offline.
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To create strong and workable IP enforcement mechanisms, as required by the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, and to provide for vigorous enforcement of misappropriation and infringement of new software innovations, such as cloud computing technologies.
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To strengthen enforcement with dedicated resources, including specialized IP enforcement units, and to improve cross-border cooperation among law enforcement agencies.
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To lead by example through active SAM policies, and to promote the use of legal software by government agencies, state-owned enterprises, contractors and suppliers.
In June 2010 the Supreme Court of Ukraine determined that storing of non-license software in PC memory is violation of copyright law, thus equating “pirates” – distributors of non-licensed software and its users. According to court practice, storage of non-licensed program copies in PC memory can be fined in amount of 10 to 50 thousand minimal salaries – which now equals to 9,07 thousand to 45,35 million UAH – for each violation.
The struggle against Internet piracy also continues. According to “Microsoft Ukraine” report, about 60 thousand links to non-licensed Windows 7 have been found recently in Ukraine! As a result most of the links were deleted with the assistance of providers monitoring the distributors.
The economic impact of reducing PC software piracy in Ukraine:
- Reducing the PC software piracy rate in Ukraine by 10 percentage points in four years would deliver: $586 million in new economic activity; 1,957 new IT jobs; and $88 million in additional tax revenues by 2013.
- Front-loading the benefits by reducing software piracy 10 points in the first two years of the same four-year period compounds the economic benefits by at least 29 percent, delivering: $755 million in new economic activity and $116 million in new tax revenues to support essential local services.
- 85 percent of software installed on personal computers (PC) in Ukraine last year was pirated, representing a commercial value of 272 million USD.
