Software piracy watchdog the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is using web crawlers to search the Internet for the illegal sale of member products. While the main focus of the new tactic is on the Asia-Pacific region, Africa cannot be ruled out.
BSA is US-based but has affiliates in a number of countries including South Africa and is aimed at the countering of the illegal use of software throughout the world. Member companies include Microsoft and Adobe.
According to a story carried by CNet.com, the decision to target the Asia-Pacific region specifically was prompted by the high rate of Internet-based piracy in the region, which is beginning to rival more traditional methods such as illegal discs.
CNet says that so far, software-swapping Web sites have been found in Singapore, Korea Taiwan, Australia, Japan and China.
Many of these Web sites discovered by the crawler have been shut down by the Internet service providers (ISPs) hosting them, after being served with a legal letter called a "notice of take-down" by the BSA. So far, most ISPs have readily complied.
Mark Reynolds, group licensing compliance manager for Microsoft SA, says the web crawlers mainly search for the sale of BSA member software, which is generally counterfeit.
"Once an offer to sell the software is noticed then further investigations are done," Reynolds says. "We usually get the leads about SA sites from the US and then alert the BSA here. Last year we received about 30 such leads."
Reynolds says that most of the SA leads relate to the sale of pirated software. "We don`t have a handle on peer-to-peer yet," he says.
The web crawler used by BSA is reported to come from Californian software developer BayTSP, which also monitors file-swapping networks for movie studios and record labels.
According to the BSA, the average piracy rate for commercial software across Asia-Pacific is at its highest level since 1996, with dollar losses in the region last year at a record high of $5.5 billion. The average software piracy rate in Asia-Pacific rose for the third year in a row, and stood at 55% in 2002.
In 1994, Asia-Pacific`s piracy level was 68% and by 1999 the rate had dropped to 47%. However, as more people in China become computer users and demand for pirated software rocketed, the rate started climbing again the following year, to today`s record level.
By comparison, Africa is a small blip on the BSA radar screen with an estimated less than $500 million loss in 2001, and a total software piracy rate of 53%, according to the BSA. Its report says that South Africa has the lowest software piracy rate on the continent with 38%, while Kenya and Nigeria have the highest rates with 77% and 71% respectively.
Paul Esselaar, MD of the online dispute resolution service TrustEnforce.co.za, says the use of the web crawler may raise some legal issues, especially if it finds pirated software on a site that specifically states that no information may be extracted through the use of a web crawler.
"If information is obtained from such a site using a web crawler then there may be a problem concerning the legality of that information. However, it will be up to the courts to decide," he says.
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