- According to a new report, Vietnam's software piracy rate in 2007 registered in at 88 per cent, down from 92 per cent in 2004. However, despite its slight improvement the figure is still far too high. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) presented the new figures during a recent conference in Danang, and warned that the country's high level of software piracy was negatively impacting the economy.
According to a report by IDC-EXPAND released earlier this year, the IT sector's contribution to the economy would grow if the software piracy rate were to fall 10 percentage points over the next four years, a move that would create an additional 1,900 jobs, garner $623 million in local industry revenues and an additional $31 million in tax revenues.
Some experts argue that the slight reduction in software piracy over the last few years was mainly the result of government and business efforts to buy copyrighted software, particularly from Microsoft. The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Information and Communication, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications, FPT, Vietcombank and most recently Vietinbank each bought thousands of dollars worth of Microsoft software, however, legal copies of the same software are often too expensive for smaller companies.
An IT manager of a multi-media company, admitted that his firm used pirated software in about 40 personal computers. The programmes included Windows XP, Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, among others. "It would cost us tens of thousands of dollars to buy legitimate software. We can't afford it because our annual revenue is only around half a million dollars," he said.
The use of pirated software is so widespread that even Bui Quang Ngoc, vice president of FPT, Microsoft's leading partner in Vietnam, admitted during a recent press conference that the "buying" of legitimate software in most cases involved only a "legalising" process, since the software had already been installed on the buyer's computers.
Due to the high cost of commercial software, a number of organisations and individuals have opted to use free open source software instead. After a number of studies, local authorities in Phu Tho, Hai Phong and Ha Tinh decided to build new electronic information portals using open source software. In addition, organisations such as the Communist Party, the Ministry of Education and Training and Sacombank are instructing their agents all over the country to deploy open source software, including the Linux operating system and the OpenOffice software suite.
On the downside however, many businesses have cited usability as a challenge. Though initially free, open source software adopters have to pay other indirect costs incurred when users switch from familiar propriety software to a new software environment, or when compatibility issues arise. Furthermore, open source software requires greater human resources to deploy and maintain. | 
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