Project 2

Software Piracy in the Philippines

Software piracy has been a problem in the Philippines for quite a long time but why is it still there? Why is software piracy bad? And why do people use pirated software?

It is funny why the Philippines doesn’t have a specific law against Software Piracy. Even the PAPT (Pilipinas Anti Piracy Team) which consists of the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), Optical Media Board, and the PNP (Philippine National Police) bases its judgment on Republic Act Number 8293 which is an act prescribing the intellectual property code and not a Anti-Software Piracy Law. I think that this is the reason why it’s hard to stop piracy in the Philippines. If there is no law against it, it’s not illegal.

If you look ath PAPT’s website, their main target are the users of pirated software and not the people who reproduce copies of those software mainly because they follow RA 8293. I think that it would really be helpful if an anti-piracy law was made so that not only the users but also the ones who reproduce copies of software can be arrested.

Why is software piracy bad? Companies have spent a lot of money in producing software, this is the reason why they have to sell it. If you buy pirated copies of software, the money goes to the pirates (for cost of reproducing), instead of the money going to the real creators/owners of the software (for cost of planning, designing, programming, analyzing, testing, etc). It is very similar to stealing, when buying pirated software, you have stolen the money that was supposed to be for them.

In the Philippines, there are a lot of people who use pirated software. I must admit that I have used pirated software. I used to buy genuine software before but it became too expensive. I guess that is the main reason why people use pirated software.

When I bought a copy of Microsoft Office 97, I can still remember that it just cost about P6,000, it was still acceptable. When Office 2000 came out, I wanted to upgrade my Office so I went to the mall to buy a copy of it, I was surprised when I asked how much it was, it cost P16,000 pesos. I felt that it was too much, I mean it’s a good investment for businesses because they can use it and earn money, but P16,000 pesos for something to let you type your homework? That’s too much!

I have read something from “to pres GMA” forum. A guy wrote what he thinks of the governments move against software piracy. One of the things that he said was “Anti-Piracy Laws are laws that KISS THE BUTTOCKS of the foreign capitalists and lash the poor”. I wasn’t surprised, I also feel that our government doesn’t care about what the Filipino people thinks but they care more about what other countries think. Also he said that “The cost of legally buying a Windows XP program is in the amount even the upper class Filipinos cannot afford.” I strongly agree with his statement BUT the price isn’t a valid reason to be a pirate. There are some open source software that are free. These open source software can substitute for the expensive software, and sometimes, these open source software are even better that the expensive ones.

So why don’t people use those open source software? Based from my experience, I would want to use software created by a trusted brand/company. I wouldn’t want to try anything else but the one I have already known. The next reason is compatibility, the open source software may not be compatible with the “already known software”. Third reason is, maybe people are not aware that open source software exist. So I guess if people try and use these open source software (not only IT people but all), piracy will go down.

But this raises another question, how will people like us benefit if people will use open source and not buy from us? People can still buy software that we make, specially “custom made” software. I believe that most open source programs are general purpose, or software that are commonly used by a lot of people.

Sources

http://www.google.com.ph/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+software+piracy&btnG=Google+Search&

http://www.papt.org.ph/

http://www.papt.org.ph/uploads/file/RA8293%20IP%20Code.pdf

http://www.gov.ph/forum/thread.asp?rootID=68555&catID=2

http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2006/07/is-software-piracy-bad.html