(a) the share of pirated software in the software industry;
(b) whether it is a fact that the Government suffered revenue losses of Rs.3900
crore in 2009 on account of the high rate software piracy in the country;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the action taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to check the software piracy in the country?
MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SACH1N PILOT)
(a): There is no official estimate available to ascertain the extent of software piracy in the country.
(b): Many of the software packages used in India are being imported. Software is exempted from basic
custom duty. There is no explicit data available on financial losses arising out of software piracy.
(c): Does not arise.
(d): The steps taken by the government to curb software piracy include the following:
(i) Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for software in the country is covered under Copyright Act, 1957 as
amended and violations attract both fine and imprisonment pena! action under Section 63 of the Copyright Act.
(ii) Government has set up a Copyright Enforcement Advisory Council under Ministry of Human Resource
Development (the nodal Administrative Ministry), which reviews the progress of enforcement of Copyright
Act and also advises on measures - both on the policy & implementation front for its better enforcement.
Special Cells for monitoring the enforcement of copyright have been set at Police Headquarters in the Slates/
UTs.
(iii) Instructions have been issued to various Government departments to use legal copies of software.
(iv) Zero custom duty on application software has contributed in reducing costs.
(v) Government is promoting Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) in e-govemance applications in the country.
A National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) has been set up to carry out Research
& Development, Human Resource Development, FOSS deployment. Support and Awareness in the country. NRCFOSS has
brought out an indigenous GNU / Linux based operating system named as Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS)
with Indian languages support.