Shanghai Daily reports:

China saw a 53-percent increase in the number of firms using copyrighted software, bringing the total since new laws came into action in April 2006, to 2,300.

The figure was released by the National Copyright Administration over the Spring Festival period, and highlighted an increase from 1,500 in December 2007 to 2,300 by the Spring Festival on February 7 this year.

No-one was available from the administration to comment on why the figure had risen so sharply over such a short period.

It would also be nice if they would explain: 1) how many firms were surveyed in total, 2) how many of the firms were state-owned and how many were private, 3) what the estimated number of computers were, 4) how compliance was assessed, and 5) what software and operating systems were covered.

But there’s no point in quibbling. The whole software piracy debate is fed by funny numbers and hopeful assumptions by just about everyone involved. The article continues:

In April 2006, the administration with eight other ministries issued a circular promoting legal use of software among large companies.

As part of a crackdown on pirated software, the government ordered municipal and local authorities to buy computers with pre-installed legitimate software and required all domestic and imported computers to be sold with legitimate software pre-installed.

Central and provincial governments have investigated 3,600 enterprises. More than 1,100 firms have faced penalties for using pirated software.

The circular has definitely made progress, at least in my opinion. Software piracy is down at the enterprise level. It’s more of a question of keeping up with compliance than anything else. Despite that, pirated software for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and for the consumer continues to be widespread. There’s probably more that can be done, but inevitably any effort would eventually run up against P2P file sharing networks.

As with digital content, technology has irreversibly disrupted the software business model. It’s too easy for too many smart people to find ways to get around the latest and greatest anti-piracy tools. Enterprises (at least the reasonably clever ones) manage their computers in such a way that pirated software isn’t worth the effort. Maybe some random developer has a bootleg version of something, but everyone else’s machine is locked down to save on support costs. But for SMBs and the consumer, it’s easy and convenient to use pirated software. Small retailers and service firms are willing to provide it and the IT savvy are more than capable of downloading it.

The problem won’t go away, in China or anywhere else, as long as software comes shrink-wrapped.

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