New ally against piracy
Author: Marta Barbosa
Source: ETCO Magazine, No. 7, Sept. 2007

Those who install pirated software on their computers because they believe they are doing good business may not know it, but this behavior contributes to losses of around US $ 40 billion a year in the world. Of this total, US $ 3 billion is losses recorded only in Latin America. The Brazilian scenario is no less frightening. Illegality is estimated to reach 60% of the business market and an impressive 90% of the domestic market, which represents annual losses of US $ 1,14 billion.
The multinational entrepreneur loses, it is true, but not only him. Also lost are hundreds of small and medium-sized national companies that work with software development, professionals in the technology sector, who assist in the closing of jobs, and the population in general, who buys a product of inferior quality and finances, without realizing it, the organized crime.
“We have a cultural problem in the country,” says Rinaldo César Zangirolami, general director of legal and corporate affairs at Microsoft.
"Our consumer does not understand that by buying a CD for R $ 1 he is strengthening the chain of organized crime and contributing to unemployment." With these arguments, Zangirolami marked the entry of Microsoft as an industry representative in ETCO and the creation of the Institute's Sectoral Chamber of Technology, which joins the existing groups of medicines, tobacco, beer, soft drinks and fuels in combating unfair competition.
For executives at Microsoft, a leading provider of software, services and solutions in information technology, participation in ETCO is an important step in the constant struggle to bring international standards of competitive ethics to the country. Brazil, for this sector, brings together many paradoxes.
If on the one hand it represents one of the most promising developing consumer markets, on the other hand it appears at the top of the list of nations most vulnerable to illegality.
The struggle to reduce the numbers of illegal production in Brazil is an old one. And, however great efforts are made, the results take time to appear. “It took us ten years of hard and effective work to see the piracy rate in the Brazilian business market drop from 65% to 60%”, says Zangirolami.
With the creation of the Sectorial Chamber of Technology, it is expected that the percentage will suffer a more relevant reduction.
"Our first commitment is to adhere to all ETCO actions, involving even more representatives from the sector."
ETCO's executive president, professor André Franco Montoro Filho, highlights the work of
consumer awareness as a central element in the fight against misconduct in the computer market. “It is not enough to just punish entrepreneurs who produce or sell illegally”, says professor André Montoro.
“Above all, it is necessary to develop activities that educate and sensitize the consumer to the advantages of legal or original products”, he adds. Thus, actions for consumer education will be very important. At the same time, another work front of the Technology Chamber will be the tax issue. In Brazil, the tax levied on a video game is equivalent to that of video poker.
That is, the product arrives at stores at a high price, which, for the less informed consumer, is decisive for the purchase of the illegal item. "We know that one of the most effective ways to end illegality is to reduce taxes on the legal product," says Zangirolami. "Hence the importance of discussing with the government ways to reduce this burden."
View the full article published in the issue no. 7 from ETCO Magazine