US alliance says Vietnam software piracy decreasing

From Thanh Nien News

Vietnam’s PC software piracy rate is decreasing and will reach 60 percent in the next ten years from the current 81 percent, according to the US’s Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Data being copied to CD

Tarun Sawney, director of BSA’s Anti-piracy Division in the Asia-Pacific region, told the Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon (Saigon Times) Online earlier this week that he believes Vietnam will achieve the expected target, given that its PC piracy software rate has been dropping 2 percent every year.

According to BSA Global Software Piracy Study released last May, in 2009, 85 percent of PC software here was pirated, but the rate decreased to 83 percent in 2010 and then 81 percent in 2011.

Vietnam is one of several countries that has made great improvements in the matter, Sawney was quoted as saying.

He said BSA will support the Vietnamese government in planning and enforcing regulations regarding software piracy as well as in training personnel and enhancing people’s awareness.

The association has recently launched the portal Verafirm.org in Vietnam to help companies manage their software efficiently. The site also documents that companies’ software is licensed, the news website reported.

Such documentation aims to prove that companies abide by intellectual property rights laws.

Read the full story from Thanh Nien News.