Business Software Alliance says that adopting copyright treaties doesn't decrease piracy
The Business Software Alliance is out today with their annual report on global piracy in 2008. The data shows declining numbers in many countries (the report covers 110 countries), though there is an overall increase due to very high rates in parts of the world.Does The WIPO Copyright Treaty Work? The Business Software Association Piracy Data (Thanks, Michael!)Two keys - first, it points to the growing importance of open source software, which the report says commands 15 percent of the market...
68% of the countries that the BSA tracks that have ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty have shown no change or only a minor increase or decrease in software piracy rates. The three countries that showed a significant decrease are Russia (which only ratified in February), China (which ratified in 2007), and Qatar (which ratified in 2005). Russia and China are important markets, yet their numbers remain very high (68% in Russia and 80% in China) and few would argue that the big declines are as a result of anti-circumvention legislation. Moreover, the average software piracy rate among WCT ratifying countries is 62% and, as mentioned, only five countries that have ratified the WCT have software piracy rates lower than Canada's.
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Copyright laws don't reduce piracy.
In other news: raindances don't cause rain.
I highly doubt that decrease in software piracy rates in Russia has something to do with the WIPO treaty.
Price war between pirates and, ahem, software pubishers does, though.
If they really, honestly, want to reduce piracy, the obvious way is to promote free software. But of course they will never do that. They are not sincere.
A good analogy would be the fight to lower the legal blood alcohol level. It won't stop the peole who drive after a couple six- packs, but might increase the number of people fined while (marginally) impaired. But the folks who have 1 or 2 aren't the ones causing fatal accidents.
And yeah offering stuff for free tends to actually increase sales. Funny, that.
The company I work for is actually part of the BSA...I'd guess that piracy rates among our employees are probably around 90%.
In disputing the question of whether the WIPO copyright treaty
"works", this article fell into the BSA's trap, by accepting and
repeating the BSA's propaganda term "piracy".
When the BSA accuses a person, or a country, of "piracy", it makes two
claims at once. The more visible claim, which is the less important,
accuses one entity of sharing. The deeper, veiled claim is that
sharing is wrong, like attacking ships. Linking the two claims
creates the trap, since the obvious way to dispute the visible claim
has the effect of endorsing the veiled deeper claim.
Evidence that the WIPO Copyright Treaty does not achieve its goal is
interesting in regard to tactics to use against the treaty. However,
we should be careful when talking about that not to endorse the
treaty's goal. The worst thing about the treaty is not that it
"doesn't work", but rather that its requirements attack the freedom of
everyone.