The Business Software Alliance of Australia, which represents industry giants such as Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Apple Computer in the fight against software piracy, paved the way for a spike in software sales during its recent software truce.
The BSAA commenced a 60-day software truce on May 1. It claims more than one thousand companies registered to take advantage of the period of immunity and that more than 4000 telephone calls and emails were made to its piracy hotline.
However, a better barometer to measure the success of the truce is the extent to which software sales increased during the 60-day grace period.
-There was a significant spike in software sales during July," BSAA chairman Jim Macnamara told ZDNet. However, -we didn't compel anyone to buy software," he added. Businesses that registered for the truce were required to check that software use was legal, he said. If they found it wasn't, they had a choice to delete it or buy it. -We pointed out quite openly that they could delete it," Macnamara said.
Nevertheless, Symantec and Autodesk reported their -best quarter in the last two years," on the back of the immunity offer, and Microsoft noticed -a large spike in software sales in June," according to Macnamara.
The 1000-plus businesses that registered to participate in the BSAA ceacefire now have to file post-truce forms advising the software watchdog of the action they took if they found unlicensed software - did they delete or buy the software? Proof of purchase has to be filed alongside the follow-up form and 750 reports have been filed so far.
-There is evidence of a very substantial purchasing of software," according to Macnamara.
According to the BSAA, 33 percent of all software installed on computers is illegal, and AU$250,000 to AU$300,000 is lost in Australia every year to software piracy.
"There's the common assumption that that is a loss to the vendors... that this is a victimless crime," Macnamara said. -But a large part of the margin goes to the retailers and distributors." Macnamara estimates that AU$200 million is lost to the Australian channel every year. -That issue is completely ignored," he said.
Whilst the dollar figure lost to piracy hasn't increased during the last couple of years, the cost of software is falling, suggesting that the volume of software piracy is rising, according to Macnamara.
-There's a huge black market for software piracy," he said.
