For IT companies, doing business in China is a double-edged sword. The market is enormous, and growing exceedingly quickly. But then again, China is also known as a hub for pirating software and numerous other forms of intellectual property.
But this week, in a state visit to Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged that his government would implement a new monitoring and auditing mechanism in an effort to root out pirated software.
For the Business Software Alliance, a leading anti-piracy group, that promise did little to allay concerns about the estimated billions of dollars its members lose owing to illegal distribution of their technology.
“We appreciate the commitments China has made in recent trade negotiations to move government agencies to the use of legal software,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman. “But at the end of the day, we will only know China is buying legal software when we see it reflected in software companies’ sales figures. Today, we are not seeing an increase.”
Datamation takes a look at what the Chinese government promised, and why the BSA wants more.
