Microsoft Corp is preparing to act against software piracy in Vietnam, which has one of the world’s highest instances of piracy. A copyright agreement between Vietnam and the US came into force at the end of last year, but appears to have had little effect according to Pieter Knook, Microsoft vice president for Asia. We want to push enforcement and we are preparing to take action now.Obviously, we want to test the laws, he said.
According to the anti-piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance, pirated software accounted for 97% of sales in Vietnam last year. With super-high rates like that you don’t build much of a local software market, said Knook.
However he was optimistic about long-term prospects in the market because of the widespread availability and usage of pirated Microsoft products. We have great usage in Vietnam, but converting that into actual business is something else, he said. Bill Gates made similar observations about the Chinese market last year, with major crackdowns coupled with court actions having had a major impact on improving Microsoft’s sales there since then.
