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Has China Reached The Tipping Point On Software Piracy Yet?
By Paul Midler | March 6, 2008
Software piracy is stifling innovation, claims a recent study commissioned by the Business Software Alliance. Having little confidence that their intellectual property rights are protected, software developers have been reluctant to develop new products from the China market. ZDNet Asia, always a good source for technology news, also points out that reducing piracy can create jobs:
“Commissioned by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and conducted by research house IDC, the study released Tuesday said the reduction would add highly-skilled jobs to the labor force, support the creation of new companies, lower business risks, and fund government services without a tax increase. Some 435,000 new jobs, over US$40 billion in economic growth, and more than US$5 billion in tax revenues above current projections, could be generated in the region, the research projected.”
Piracy used to be a boon for China as the laobaixing benefited for years from lax regulation. It was only through piracy that someone earning US$100 per month could afford Microsoft products selling for hundreds of dollars. The problem is that the economy is now stuck from an innovation standpoint, and China must realize that it makes better sense to support software rights. The question is whether China has yet reached that tipping point. Does China still benefit more by allowing the wholesale piracy of software, or is the practice doing more harm than good now?
Topics: China |
March 6th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Mike Harmon
March 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
China certainly hasn’t reached the tipping point, or rather it reached the tipping point on software piracy years ago. But, allowing the piracy of software might be doing more harm than good, especially in the more affluent parts of China. The big problem is that there are still a lot of people earning the US$100 per month and any software but a videogame is going to cost you US$100+. Maybe with greater enforcement a homegrown software market could offer comparable products at Chinese prices? How many of those companies are going to end up in court for producing substantially similar to preexisting products?
March 6th, 2008 at 9:27 am
China is always going to know as a place for piracy. There is no tipping point here and there never was. The piracy that goes on in China is everywhere and the only people who want to get rid of it are the foreign companies that are losing money on sales. Chinese companies don’t think that they are losing anything by piracy. They are only gaining!
March 6th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
simple solution: Don’t tax people, so their creativity juices will flow (see recent Danwei.org article on publishing industry and solutions for stoking creativity)
March 6th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Hunxuer - Welcome to attach a link…
March 11th, 2008 at 2:57 am
“The problem is that the economy is now stuck from an innovation standpoint, and China must realize that it makes better sense to support software rights.”
Pure nonsense. There has been NO innovation in mainstream software for at least ten years. Microsoft software is the best example of this. It’s garbage thru and thru so who cares if any or all of it is pirated ?