Study: It still pays to use legal software

By Eden Estopace | Dec 4, 2011

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A Harisson Group study commissioned by Microsoft confirmed the advantages of genuine software over counterfeit products in at least three areas - performance and productivity, security and power consumption.

Microsoft released these findings during the celebration of Play Fair Day, a global initiative which aims to educate businesses, consumers and governments to play by the rules, learn about the benefits of using legal software and build respect for intellectual property.

The tests on genuine and counterfeit Microsoft software from peer-to-peer file sharing, independent hardware dealers, and street market stalls in a wide geographical area, including China and Eastern Europe, was conducted by Lionbridge Technologies in its labs in May this year.

"The software were installed on a variety of computer models manufactured by a representative of popular PC brands to mitigate the effects any specific hardware configuration may have on the results," Celine S. Conti, Genuine Software Initiative (GSI) Lead, Microsoft Philippines Inc., said.

Key findings

The study showed that users of genuine Microsoft software enjoy a safer computing experience, benefit from better performance and productivity, and save on power than users of counterfeit software.

One in four of the counterfeit versions of Microsoft software tested was unable to download automatic Windows and Office updates, while one in five was also unable to install updates manually, which further compromises security.

Nearly one in four (24 percent) of the pirated operating systems, also became infected at installation, or independently downloaded and installed malicious software upon connection to the Internet.

"The low price of using counterfeit software comes at a high cost," Conti said.

"Counterfeit users put themselves at risk by using pirated software. The viruses found in the counterfeit software range from simple worms to annoying trojans to particularly malicious and fast spreading viruses. While the level of harm of infected threats vary, the existence of unknown platforms and channels distribution should give users cause when deciding whether or not to test their product with an unknown source," she explained.

The study also found that users of genuine software enjoy superior productivity and performance. In boot time tests, genuine Windows machines outperformed those with pirated installations 60 percent of the time by an average of 56 percent. In tests measuring the time it takes to print 500kb or 1mb Word documents, genuine machines were faster than their pirated counterparts in half (48 percent) of the test configurations by an average of 56 percent.

Generally, PCs running genuine Windows and MS-Office products outperformed their pirated counterparts 75 percent of the time by an average of 52 percent when opening documents such as Microsoft Excel. 

"Whether it comes in the form of long waits or thousands of smaller ones, the delay adds up to loss of user productivity," said Conti.

Moreover, the systems with genuine software were found to be more energy-efficient when performing processor-intensive operations. In a test measuring how much power is consumed while running processor-intensive programs for an hour, genuine Windows machines outperformed pirated operating systems 60 percent of the time by an average of 20 percent. 

In a test measuring how much power is consumed by a computer when the operating system is in sleep mode with no programs running, the machines installed with genuine Microsoft software outperformed those with pirated installations more than half (62 percent) of the time by an average of nearly 8 percent.

Government losses

An IDC study on unlicensed software showed that 71 percent were downloaded from the Web or a peer-to-peer network, 12 percent came with the PC, 9 percent were bought from a street market or an online auction supply and about 7 percent were borrowed from a friend or downloaded from another computer. 

Microsoft said the financial impact of using illegal software is huge in both developing and developed economies. Its own research showed that piracy creates a staggering $3 billion of competitive disadvantage per year across manufacturers in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. In the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries alone, companies that choose to use illegal software steal an estimated $1.5 billion from their in-market competitors that use to play fair by using genuine software.

Governments, however, also experience revenue losses from taxes that would have otherwise been paid in legal commercial transactions.

Atty. Allan Gepti, Deputy General, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL), said during the Play Fair Day in the Philippines that  counterfeiting and piracy are serious concerns as it not only affects the rights holder but governments and workers in the knowledge economy in general. 

"The critical solution is changing the mindset of the people so they will recognize value and importance of intellectual property (IP) and be informed of the adverse effects of counterfeit products," he said. "We cannot keep running against IP rights infringers we really have to educate people to respect IP.

Last year, however, the government agency has moved from education and advocacy on the use of genuine software to enforcement.

"If you analyze the IP lifecycle - creation, production and commercialization - enforcement is very critical because if you cannot enforce IP rights you cannot expect people to avail of the IP system. So we are intensifying our efforts against counterfeiting and piracy," he said.

Philippine laws, however, are inadequate to enforce compliance or to prosecute cases of copyright infringement, pending the passage of the Cybercrime bill at the Senate.

In the meantime, Gepti disclosed that an inter-agency body, composed of 12 government agencies, has been set up to run after IP violators.

Global losses

Earlier this year, the Business Software Alliance has released a study placing the commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in the Asia-Pacific at a record US$18.7 billion in 2010.

This is 1 percent higher than the recorded losses due to piracy of $16.5 billion in 2009.

The countries with the highest piracy rates are Bangladesh (90 percent), Indonesia (87 percent), Sri Lanka (86 percent), Pakistan (84 percent), and Vietnam (83 percent). Meanwhile, those with the lowest piracy rates were Japan (20 percent), New Zealand (22 percent), Australia (24 percent), Taiwan (20 percent), and Singapore (34 percent).

May Rivera-Moreno, Windows Product Lead, Microsoft Philippines Inc., revealed that Microsoft is boosting its anti-piracy campaign by providing more incentives for using genuine software.

When customers buy genuine Windows 7 (Microsoft Security Ensemble) in the Philippine, for example, one already gets free anti-virus software. Other free software are als thrown in, including Windows Live Essentials (Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, SkyDrive).

PHOTO: Celine S. Conti, Genuine Software Initiative (GSI) Lead, Microsoft Philippines Inc.