African governments are cracking down on software piracy through strong laws to safeguard intellectual property. At the same time, more and more African businesses are opening their eyes to the benefits of legally licensed software and how it can help them run more efficient businesses.

Sage Pastel Accounting has invested heavily in building a partner network through Africa – including Nigeria and Ghana – to sell and support legitimate Sage Evolution ERP licenses. Companies that buy through this legal channel will benefit from world-class implementation and support services.

So what is software piracy?

Software piracy affects the software industry around the world. It is defined as the failure to comply with software licensing agreements. Piracy can take many forms:

• End-user copying:When one person buys a legally licensed piece of software and then allows more friends, business colleagues and family to copy the application than he or she has licenses for.
• Volume software license copying:When businesses underreport the number of computers on which the software is installed so that they can pay for fewer copies than they are actually using.
• Reseller copying:When resellers pass software onto their clients for free rather than selling a license.
• Counterfeiting:Criminals copy the software and collateral, such as manuals, and sell it as the original product.

Why is it bad?

Piracy, in any form, is an unlawful action and offenders are liable to either civil or criminal prosecution. Far from a victimless crime, software piracy hurts customers, resellers and software vendors.

Lower vendor revenues, as a result of software piracy, limit the industry’s ability to re-invest funds in research and development (R&D) and continuously maintain and improve service and support infrastructures. Local resellers suffer because they don’t get the revenues they need to invest in their businesses.

Furthermore, purchasing pirate software can have a damaging effect on your company as the software may introduce viruses to your system. Users of pirate products do not benefit from the quality and reliability guarantees provided to lawful, licensed customers and will be unable to access technical software support.

How will your business benefit from going legit?

Legal, licensed software users enjoy many benefits which are not available to pirate users. These benefits include, the peace of mind in knowing that the software will not introduce viruses to your system; quality and reliability guarantees from the software vendor; ongoing product updates and upgrades, services and support for those customers subscribed to appropriate support agreements.