Microsoft has completed the most recent round of its piracy-monitoring program in Russia, a program that monitors the levels of unlicensed software in retail computer sales.
Of 3,229 audited retail outlets in 94 Russian cities, about 20 percent offered pirated software to customers. Eleven percent of the audited retail outlets allowed preinstallation of pirated software.
Compared with the previous round of the program, piracy has dropped significantly at retail outlets in all regions of Russia.
The cities with the highest levels of piracy were Elista at 100 percent, Makhachkala at 71 percent, and Gorno-Altaisk at 64 percent. In these cities, 45-90 percent of stores usually offer to install unlicensed software in the store.
The lowest levels of piracy were recorded in Vladimir, Petrozavodsk, Vologda, Kurgan, and Surgut. The computer stores in these cities did not employ mystery shoppers nor suggest to customers that they install unlicensed software.
Over the past year, the piracy level in Moscow remained virtually unchanged: 27 percent of computer retail outlets recommended pirated software to customers, and 17 percent offered to install pirated software at the time of purchase. Considering the volume of PC sales in Moscow, this level of piracy equates to a significant number of pirated copies and, accordingly, significant risks for many buyers of new PCs.
The main sources of pirated software in Moscow were computer markets and shopping malls that sell electronics and household appliances.
Among cities with a population of one million or more, those with the highest level of recommendations for the use of pirated software were Omsk at 27 percent, Moscow at 27 percent, Chelyabinsk at 21 percent, and Volgograd at 24 percent.
The cities with the most evident decline in piracy were Lipetsk at 49 percent, Ryazan at 35 percent, Nizhny Tagil at 28 percent, and Samara at 27 percent.
Nevertheless, the amount of pirated software in Russia was still relatively high in 2009 at 67 percent, according to market research firm IDC.
“Regular monitoring of computer retailing across the entire country, and the finalization of the results for each of more than 3,000 tested outlets, shows that the pirated supply in this segment has been steadily declining. The last wave revealed the lowest level over the whole history of the program: on average only 20 percent of checked retail outlets offer or recommend installation of pirated software. At the same time, the situation in some regions remains alarming, and the number of offers to use pirated software even increased. In the near future we will focus our efforts on them,” said Denis Goose, promotion director of Microsoft licensed software department in Russia.
From January 2009 through December 2010 Russian law-enforcement authorities initiated more than 2300 inspections among distributors of unlicensed software. By January 2011, these inspections yielded the Microsoft legal department more than 190 facts to check.
“Information obtained from the mystery shopper program, as well as information received from customers, provides legal services with large amounts of material to work with, and each year hundreds of violators become subject to criminal responsibility and responsibility under administrative law. At the same time, violators pay significant monetary compensation to rights holders,” said Alexander Strakh, lawyer for the protection of intellectual property of Microsoft in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Monitoring results illustrates two key points. First, the fight against software piracy gives more and more tangible results, and copyright protection in recent years has gradually improved. Cooperation of the legislative and executive authorities with the participation of associations of rights holders allows the adoption of modern laws, the development of efficient control methods, and the expansion of judicial practice on all types of software copyright infringement. Secondly, only those holders who actively refer to the protection of their rights and consistently lead the analytical, law enforcement, and educational work reach explicit and sustained reduction of the piracy level of their software products,” said Dmitry Sokolov, director of the Nonprofit Software Producers Partnership (NS PP).
