As per a recent survey, during the recent years piracy has gone up considerably. As a result of this losses due to piracy were close to crores of rupees. Every year, piracy accounts for billions of dollars worth of revenue losses for software vendors like Microsoft and Adobe.
Despite possessing the purchasing power, consumers lack the maturity to buy these soft wares from legal sources. Though in some of the developed nations, companies make the extra effort of creating awareness about the development of the soft wares but that rarely prove to be a success.
Another factor detrimental to the purchase of genuine software is the high initial cost of the software and upgraded versions keep appearing every now and then. But the price should not be an issue if one looks at the purchase as a long term investment. Besides, up gradation requires a much smaller amount to be shelled out. According to Adobe, people pay next to nothing for a pirated version and make huge returns especially in the print and advertising media.
At Adobe the piracy rate is as high as 90% which means for every 10 users of the software 9 use the pirated versions. Lesser return on investments might not affect companies like Adobe to a large extent, but could prevent small time developers who mostly make utility software. Piracy also acts as an obstacle for attracting foreign investment.
Levels of piracy will remain where they are or decline if at all, only slightly over the next few future years. Given that price is a major determinant, companies should be able to provide users with more choices, and buyers in turn should be more willing to purchase them.
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