linuxurious's Journal: software piracy in south east asia

I am a south-east asian and I can tell you what software piracy in south east asia is all about. Pirated software are essentially learning and evaluation versions for the masses; one can have the latest and best software for mere peanuts. Software is pretty useless if one does not use it or learn how to use it. The governments close one of their eyes because they know pirated software is needed to promote IT literacy which would in turn boost their economies with a more skilled workforce. How else would so many students know how to use Microsoft Visual Studio or so many of those not in the IT industry know how to use Microsoft Office. They had to start from somewhere and that somewhere is usually at home (or even workplace) with pirated software.

Now that the IT literacy rates have improved vastly over the year, those software companies (with Microsoft) which have been hovering like watchful hawks (or vultures as some would prefer), started to swoop for their right of prey (in truth and law, they deserved to be compensated in one way or another). Software audits are no longer done in a hush-hush manner and whistle-blowers are rewarded for squealing on their usually ex-employers. The governments can no longer act blur to the illegal use of software, use of illegal software and the illegal software itself otherwise it would face multiple sanctions. Raids on software pirates were widely successful (someone has to be the scrapegoat) and pleasing to the various software companies (I am actually still wondering on their real reactions). Education is in place to steer the people to the right way of using the software. It's harvest time for the software companies (or is it not)!

Then something peculiar happened. In fact, this is still in the trickling stage and I invite you to witness this phenomenon together. Someone started to invite Mr Penguin (GNU/Linux) around. Suddenly, people are realising the virtues and strength of free and open source software such as GNU/Linux. They are not exactly difficult to pick up because the fundamentals are already in place. Some governments made a knowingly wry smile; an almost suppressed one. Some of them still need the support from software companies such as Microsoft but some other governments have decided to be anti-western (what has it got to do with software, no one really knows) and to adopt free and open source software which is supposed to belong to everyone on earth.

Ah, socio-economic and political tides know no magnitude and directions. Hear Hear. Alas, only in my birthplace are our countrymen forever doomed to stand in the shadow of others because we are too small to be a giant.

Malaysia

[linuxurious]

Recently, Malaysia is doing many high-profile anti-software piracy raids and audits. At the same time, the Malaysian government is considering proposals to go open-source. The timing, ahem, cannot be more aprioprate ..
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