Software piracy boom continues despite clampdown

Software pirates are not about to give up on their trade and in Lagos, pirates would rather die than give up on the trade, EUNICE AYEGBOYIN was in Otigba to find out.

Microsoft may win the anti-piracy war against
Globacom, but it is not likely to win the war against
the software vermin in Computer Village, Otigba.
Otigba is the hub for computer wares and accessories
in Lagos. It is also home to hundreds of software
pirates ever watchful of security officials.

Enforcements officers have conducted series of raids
in the past against pirates but it has only helped
them (pirates) to perfect their escape routes. Now
counterfeiters no longer display their wares on the
shelves. They are on the streets of Otigba, their
wares arranged inside opened suitcases on display and
ready to be snapped close when security operatives
appear from nowhere as it has happened severally in
the past.

Microsoft has dragged second national carrier Globacom
to court after talks between its Nigerian office and
the telecom operator failed to yield any fruitful
results. The software company is accusing the telco of
using its software unauthorised. “ Not a single
product of Microsoft used by it [Globacom] is
legitimate or licensed,” a senior official of
Microsoft Nigeria told IT Edge.

Globacom and Microsoft are likely to reach an
out-of-court understanding but not so between the
software giant and the pirates who sell its
counterfeited products at Otigba. Reason: It pays to
sell unauthorised copies of original software. For in
stance, an original XP goes for as much as N20, 000
but a pirated copy goes for as little as N500 at
Otigba. For the pirates, it is big business that “only
death can stop,” to quote one dealer of pirated
software at Otigba. He has been in the business for
over seven years and sees no reason why anyone should
stop him. As is the tradition in Otigba, he has
groomed over six other people in the business who had
served him for about two years to learn the trade.
Now, they have been unleashed on software companies to
cream of their profit margins.

Pirates are adamant and even feel self-justified. They
say the business would fall only if it loses its major
attractions. It is a good source of getting cheap
software. It is also a good source of rewarding
employment for hundreds of youngsters who would
otherwise be jobless. In Otigba, crime pays and it is
showing in the turnover of counterfeiters. “Piracy is
out of no job, nobody comes out of school and will be
thinking of piracy as a profession,” said one
counterfeiter who simple identified himself as Victor.
He added: “We will still continue to pirate. The
point is that Microsoft should see Nigeria as their
largest market and they should sell at a reduced rate.
Because not all Nigerians can afford it so we need to
find a way of helping our people”

Victor is convinced that when price of original
software crashes, pirates would lose a sizeable share
of the market as “you are taking a risk for installing
pirated copy because you are not sure it will not
crash your hard disk if installed.” All kinds of
software are on displayed to prospective buyers who
flock the market. They range from gaming software,
operating systems, and anti-virus to application
packages. The hottest items remain the Windows
versions, Adobe PageMaker, CorelDraw and Norton
anti-virus.

Want to know the customers? They include the computer
training schools, makers of cloned systems, and wait
for it, corporate institutions that include the banks.
“ Everyone wants something cheap and even Bill Gate
would have patronised us if he were not the founder of
Microsoft,” one very cynical pirate told IT Edge. It
was obvious that he was highly educated. Most of the
sellers of pirated copies are school dropouts or first
school leavers.

Piracy remains the scourge of the global software
industry and last year the Business Software
Associates (BSA), a coalition of software companies
that includes the likes of IBM and Microsoft warned
global piracy was on the increase. Even areas
considered to traditionally frowned at piracy and
areas with stiff penalty against counterfeiting were
warming up to the scourge. About $45 billion was lost
to counterfeiters alone last year.

Is there a technology that can make counterfeiting
impossible and end the decades old scourge? Tope
Aladega, computer engineer ruled out such development.
“It is not possible, and Nigerians will still pirate
no matter the technology.” Pirates are an unbeatable
lot, said Aladega speaking in pidgin English he said
“No be technology them dey talk when we are selling
pirated Microsoft XP two weeks before it’s official
launch? It was a clear reference to the what happened
in the pirate community some weeks before XP was
officially launched. Pirated copies had found their
ways into Otigba weeks before Microsoft official
gathered at Le Meridien Eko Hotel, Lagos to remove the
wraps from their newest baby.

Another Otigba based counterfeiter, simply called
Chukwuemeka proffered that “no software could be
pirated without the knowledge of one of the personnel
of the company whose software has been pirated because
there must be a corporate serial number to be used to
install a software, it is this number that is used to
pirate other copies that is why all our pirated
software have the same serial number in Nigeria.”

Chukwuemeka claimed he got his own serial number from
his email box, “ it was sent to me like a junk message
I almost deleted it I just say I should check the
content and I wrote the number down and tried it,
since I have knowledge of computers and it worked.
That is my source of income till today.” For all
Microsoft officials in Nigeria, so-called serial
number could just be a fairy tale. Most counterfeited
software are shipped in from Asia.

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