KUWAIT CITY, Dec 14: “Kuwait has the highest software piracy rate in the entire GCC region”, said Ahmad Al-Jassim, Autodesk’s Country Manager for the Gulf region as he spoke at a roundtable discussion organized by his company in collaboration with the Kuwait Intellectual Property (IP) Department on Software Piracy in Kuwait Wednesday at the Regency Hotel, followed by the launch of a new license compliance initiative in Kuwait aimed at promoting copyright protection as well as educate businesses, students and the general public of the benefits of using legal software.
With Kuwait ranked as the highest in the GCC region with a 62% piracy rate, Jassim said his company Autodesk, a global software design company, wants to help all segments of the Kuwaiti society including the educational and business sectors by giving them the right tools. He said respect for copyright law has a lot of consequences on investment, technology advancement, savings and productivity adding that normally pirates who use illegal software cannot really understand the impact of the benefits of the use of the right solutions.
“We are here to create the awareness for this problem. People normally choose to go the easy way which is to copy without understanding the consequences, copying however have a lot of implications which could be technical leading to a crash of the machine using the pirated software, thus bringing needless delays to the project; it could also impact the reputation of the individual as well as the company involved, leading to serious legal entanglements,” said Jassim. The roundtable event was meant among other things to explore ways to handle the problem in cooperation with the Kuwaiti government.
On whether software affordability is taken into consideration in the fight against software piracy, Jassim stated that Autodesk has different pricing for different regions in the world, depending on the region, national GDP, number of professional software design companies and software engineers’ wages; an example is that software in Africa costs much lower than in Gulf countries, prices in India lower than those in the United States and Europe. These are the factors used in determining the fair value of software in various countries.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Technology Consultancy study that found Kuwait to be the software piracy leader in the GCC region, also found out a 10% drop in piracy in the country could hand a $350 million boost to the economy through taxes and improved revenues in the Information Technology industry. Autodesk’s approach therefore is to work with channel partners and industry organizations to highlight the right solutions and the many benefits of license compliance to businesses across Kuwait. “It is an important step towards achieving a lower rate software piracy rate in the Kuwaiti market which in the long run will help the country’s growth in the IT front,” added Jassim.
Another strategy Autodesk aims to use in the control of piracy apart from increasing awareness levels is to continuously support all engineering firms in Kuwait by providing the best engineering and infrastructural design applications so as to raise productivity levels of those businesses. Autodesk also intend to embark on an intensive educational program to highlight the adverse effects of software piracy on Kuwait’s economy as a technological initiative killer and lowering of productivity. The practice of Software Asset Management (SAM) will be encouraged as a way for customers to ensure license compliance throughout their organization.
The panelist were unanimous in their call for stricter enforcement of stiffer penalties for people who engage in software piracy which should include imprisonment, fines, monetary compensation as well as closure of the culprit’s business establishment.
Among the general recommendations were the amendment, update and modernizing the copyright law, ensuring provision of deterrent penalties, build, improve and train government agencies in the areas of investigation, prosecution and enforcement, the creation of Intellectual Property Rights Task Force among government agencies to ensure cooperation, create more awareness and educational programs as well as improve and activate settlement disciplines.
Apart from Ahmad Al-Jassim the General Sales Manager who led the Dubai-based Autodesk executives to the event, there was also a sizeable contingent from Al-Babtain Group, the authorized representatives and distributors of Autodesk products in Kuwait, led by Mohamed Shalaby the Group Chief Operating Officer. IP Lawyer Abdullateef Al-Zeer represented the Kuwait Intellectual Property Department.