Microsoft reams out Africa
p2pnet.net News:- The Microsoft reality configuration team is getting plenty of mileage out of a shock-horror claim that 81% of computer software now in use in Africa is illegal or, put another way, it wasn’t bought from Microsoft.
And this is costing governments and the high-tech industry [read Bill and the Boyz], "billions of dollars in revenue and choking growth," say "experts" quoted by Agence France-Presse.
What to do if Africa wants information technology to "help jumpstart development and reduce poverty"? Enhance and enforce intellectual property laws.
And this time the BSA (Business Software Alliance), whose imaginative stats have been called into question, and of which Microsoft is a member, wasn’t pumping out the numbers.
Instead, "Meeting at a recent workshop in the Kenyan capital, representatives of software companies, including United States giant Microsoft, government and media companies heard stunning piracy figures and the costs to local economies," says AFP.
The "stunning figures" of course came from Microsoft in the shape of Abed Hlatshwayo, the company’s anti-piracy manager for Eastern and Southern Africa who, says the story, claims the region is, "awash in illegal copies and downloads worth more than $12,4-billion".
Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Botswana and Kenya are named as the principal culprits and, "As a result of piracy in Africa, Microsoft lost $31 million between 2004 and 2006," says the Angola Press, also quoting Hlatshwayo.
"We need to change this trend and purchase genuine goods and we shall be contributing towards the growth of our economies, but this can only be achieved if there is legal framework to protect artistic work in our individual state," the story has him saying.
But convincing African computer users to work with legitimate software will be difficult, experts acknowledge, says AFP.
"People don’t want to spend money on something tangible which is easily available," it has James Kusewa, an operating environment and messaging business devevolpment manager for Dimensions Data, an East African IT firm, saying, and going on:
"It’s hard, but software companies need to convince people to budget for IT and buy software from correct channels so that they can get the value of genuine software like security updates, product upgrades, warranty, technical support… that can’t run on pirated copies."
About 90% of the non-corporate product, "entered Africa from nations with traditionally weak copyright enforcement," says the story, namely, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, China and Indonesia.
Enter the BSA.
Now, "African pirates are rapidly entering the market with Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Zambia added this year to the top 20 list of high piracy states as determined by the Business Software Alliance, an umbrella group for the industry," states AFP.
The dread spectre of Open Source wasn’t raised, apparently.
Meanwhile, "Hlatshwayo challenged the African media to spearhead the war against piracy and advocate to their publics the essence of genuine goods and effects of dubious commodities to the consumer and to the state," adds the Angola Press.
Also See:
Agence France-Presse – Software piracy costs Africa billions, October 16, 2006
called into question – New BSA shlock-horror study, May 23, 2006
Angola Press – Microsoft decries rampant piracy in Africa, September 30, 2006
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