Vietnam’s PC software piracy fell by 2 per cent to 83 per cent in 2010, the first time it has dropped in three years.

However, the commercial value of unlicensed software installed on PCs in Viet Nam reached US$412 million in 2010 compared to $353 million in 2009.

These figures were among the findings of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010 Global Software Piracy Study, which evaluates the state of software piracy around the world. It is the eighth study of global software piracy conducted by the BSA in partnership with IDC, the IT industry’s leading market research and forecasting firm, for 116 countries and territories around the world.

“This progress is the result of enormous efforts made by Viet Nam’s Government in recent years to improve the legal framework for the protection of software copyrights and enhancing both educational and enforcement activities,” said Dao Anh Tuan, a spokesperson for the BSA.

“To get Viet Nam’s software piracy rate down to the regional level of around 60 per cent in parallel with the objective of making Viet Nam a strong IT nation, there is still much to be done by the Government. This will benefit Viet Nam by increasing GDP, employment and tax revenues for the Government as studies have shown,” said Tuan.

The BSA has been working with the Copyright Office of Viet Nam and the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism since 2008 in an attempt to tackle software piracy. They recently launched an educational campaign targeting retailers, with the goal of reducing the installation of illegal software on new PCs. “Retailers must ensure that they only sell what they are entitled to sell, because the unauthorised copying of software, with or without a fee, is an offence in Viet Nam,” said Pham Xuan Phuc, Deputy Chief Inspector of the ministry.

They also plan to hold educational workshops in universities and produce an educational TV programme in the form of a game show. “Raising public awareness in the respect of software copyrights will help reduce software piracy, which in turn will attract foreign investors and promote the development of Viet Nam’s software industry,” said Vu Manh Chu, Director of the Copyright Office of Viet Nam.

This year’s Global Software Piracy Study also includes a new dimension: a public-opinion survey of PC users on key social attitudes and behaviour related to software piracy.

The survey found strong support for intellectual property rights, with 70 per cent of those surveyed expressing their support for the promotion of technological advances by paying inventors for their creations. Strikingly, support for intellectual property rights was strongest in markets with high piracy rates.

The survey also found widespread recognition that licensed software was better than pirated one, because it was understood to be more secure and more reliable. The problem was that many PC users lacked a clear understanding of whether common ways of acquiring software, such as buying a single programme licence for multiple computers or downloading a programme from a peer-to-peer network, was likely to be legal or illegal.

Source: VNS