Computing and society

With advances of technology and time, the modern society is getting more and more digitized and people are getting more and more inter-connected through the use of ICT applications. Companies, government agencies educational bodies and financial institutions are all using computers and engaged in electronic activities. Thus, there is an ever increasing need for software to compliment this phenomenon.

The pervasiveness of such electronic activities worldwide is increasing at a phenomenonal rate. The number of households in the modern society that own a personal computer is much higher than say, a few years back. As the world gets more interconnected through computers and more people own a computer, the need for computer hardware and software is ever present. As technology gets better with each passing day, software companies come up with newer and better products for society.

The problems arise as such software products are expensive and newer versions are being churned out by software companies faster than anyone would have expected. In order not to be obsolete in terms of technology and to be up to date with the rest of the world, one would have to buy the newer software products to keep up. In the case of businesses and companies, the need to be ahead in a competitive environment makes this need to be up to date even more crucial. Therefore, this gives rise to the need to purchase such commercial software products.

To combat the needs of the masses for the new software products that are affordable to all, alternatives present itself as software pirates illegally duplicate the original products and then sell the duplicated ones on the market. According to the Business Software Alliance's (BSA) Eighth Annual Survey on global software piracy, the average piracy rate for commercial software across Asia Pacific is at its highest level since 1996 and dollar losses in the region in 2002 were at an all time high of US$5.5 billion [1]. This is a worrying trend.

Other than software piracy, there are some people with such level of technical competence that they developed tiny programs known as ‘cracks’ that allows other to use unlicensed software with authentication. These allow users of unlicensed software to by-pass software authentication implemented by software companies, enabling them to use the pirated products.

To curb such activities that the authorities have come up with various measures and enforcements such as, educational campaigns to teach the public the harms of using unlicensed/pirated software products, conducting regular raids on pirated software vendors and introducing tougher punishments on offenders to deter software pirates.

Thus, the purpose of this project is to find out about the attitudes of the different people of different nationalities towards the uses of unlicensed/pirated software products, their respective government measures towards combating such illegal acts, to what degree is the law being enforced in their countries and their awareness of the legal implications of such activities. In the case of this project, the countries being studied are Vietnam and Singapore respectively.

By studying the differences between the two countries, we hope to understand the severity of software piracy in both countries, whether there are any similarities between the two, and from the study of the measures adopted by the respective governments in fighting software piracy, we hope to understand the effectiveness of the measures. From these, we will be able to see how serious the problems of software piracy actually are and what measures are useful in addressing the problems.

This cross-country study will allow each government to see what his counterpart is doing and may be able to trade pointers and adopt measures to combat software piracy more effectively.

As mentioned before, by observing the differences between Singapore and Vietnam, we hope to be able to understand the common perceptions and causes of software piracy in both countries and the differences between the two countries.

And by comparing the measures adopted by each respective government in fighting software piracy, we hope to be able to compare and contrast the methods used, their relative effectiveness in fighting software piracy and from the results, conclude which measures are useful in addressing the problems.

In this project, we chose to find out about the public perception of the uses of unlicensed/pirated software products in Singapore and Vietnam and what the relevant authorities in each country are doing about the problems of software piracy.

In order to achieve the objectives stated before, we have come up with six research questions to help focus our study on software piracy and the differences between Singapore and Vietnam situations.

1) To find out about the general attitudes of the people of Singapore and Vietnam towards using unlicensed/pirated software and the differences in them (if any).

2) To find out about the awareness of the laws in place in their respective countries (Singapore and Vietnam) and the general feelings Singaporeans and Vietnamese have with regards to the laws the differences between them (if any).

3) To find out about the laws and the measures in place in Singapore and Vietnam and the differences in them (if any).

4) To find out about the legal implications of such activities in the Singaporean context and in the Vietnamese context and differences between them (if any).

5) To find out about what the Singaporean government and the Vietnamese government are doing about the problems and their measures taken and the differences in them (if any).

6) To find out about the effectiveness of the actions taken by the Singaporean government and the Vietnamese government in combating the rampant spread of unlicensed/ pirated software and the differences in them (if any).

The main focus the project will be about the general perceptions of Singaporeans and Vietnamese with regards toward software piracy and the general awareness of the legal implications of engaging in activities such as buying and/or selling of unlicensed/pirated software products.

Subsequent focus of the project will be comparison between Singapore and Vietnam, and their measures taken in combating software piracy and the effectiveness of the adopted measures.

As stated in our objectives and research questions, the emphasis of our study is primarily to find out about the differences (if any) between software piracy in Singapore and Vietnam, especially the general perceptions of the problems of software piracy and the awareness of the laws and legal implications of engaging in related activities.

Subsequently, we will take a look at the prevailing laws of Singapore and Vietnam with regards toward software piracy and the respective authorities’ response to the rising trend of software piracy.

Subsequently, we intend to find out more about the prevailing laws in Singapore and Vietnam with regards to software piracy. To achieve this aim, we intend to obtain the relevant materials needed from the related legislative acts (e.g. Copyright Act) of each respective government statute board from online sources and/or from libraries. Then, we will quote relevant passages from the respective acts and do a simple comparison between the two countries.

Finally, we intend to find out about the measures the Singaporean government and the Vietnamese government are taking to solve the problems of software piracy and the effectiveness of the actions taken in combating the rampant spread of unlicensed/ pirated software and the differences in them (if any). To achieve this, we will obtain the relevant information about the measures taken by the respective authorities from archives and/or online sources such as news portals and websites of government agencies that deal with such commercial crimes.

In order to achieve the two objectives as mentioned above, we have administered a survey to answer some of our research questions. In our survey, we have a combination of opened and closed questions with multiple choices to help us collect more detailed data from the respondents for better analysis.

Due to constraints of resources and time, a limited survey could only be carried out on Singaporean undergraduates and Vietnamese undergraduates in the National University of Singapore. The total size of the population which the survey is done on is 61, with 31 Singaporean respondents and 30 Vietnamese respondents.

The survey respondents are required to answer either “YES” or “NO”. The purpose of designing this question is to find out whether the respondents themselves approve of the use of unlicensed/ pirated software products, and indirectly, whether they themselves feel that using or owning unlicensed/pirated software is right or wrong.

Our initial assumptions, based on our own personal experiences, are that the percentage of the Vietnamese respondents who answered “YES” will be significantly greater than that of the Singaporean respondents.

Shown in figure 1.1 is the graph detailing the absolute numbers of the Singaporean and Vietnamese respondents who answered “YES” and those who answered “NO”.

In figure 1.2, the graph shows the percentage of the Singaporean and Vietnamese respondents who answered “YES” and those who answered “NO”.

According to the statistics derived from figure 1.1 and 1.2, the percentage (87.1%) and number (27) of the Singaporean respondents who answered “YES” is greater than the percentage (83.3%) and number (25) of Vietnamese respondents who answered “YES”.

In contrast, the percentage (16.7%) and number (5) of the Vietnamese respondents who answered “NO” is greater than the percentage (12.9%) and number (4) of Singaporean respondents who answered “NO”.

The statistics have proven our initial assumptions wrong even though the actual numbers differ slightly. From this result, we can derived conclude that majority of the respondents of both nationalities uses unlicensed/pirated software.

. The 2^nd question of our survey attempts to investigate the main reasons why the average people would want to use unlicensed/pirated software.

Four reasons are given with one open-ended if the respondent has other reason. The respondent is required to choose from a range of 1 to 7, with 1 being strongly agree and 7 being strongly disagree, for each of the four reasons, to indicate how strongly he/she agree with the given reason.

The four reasons and their average statistical values are shown in the table below.

Reasons	Singaporean (N = 27)	Vietnamese (N = 25)
1. cheaper	1.6	2.2
2. readily available	2.9	2.5
3. latest version available	3.5	3.5
4. others are using it too	3.4	3.0

Also included are the percentile distributions of the respondents with regard to the four reasons given. Shown in figure 2.1 and 2.2 are the respective percentile distribution for Singaporean respondents and Vietnamese respondents.

For question 2.1 - “Cheaper than the original product”, majority of the Singaporean respondents strongly agree with the statement. The average statistical value for Singaporeans is 1.6. For the Vietnamese respondents, they too strongly agree with the statement, with the average statistical value of 2.2. From the data collected, though there is a slight deviation of 0.4, we can conclude that majority of the respondents of both nationalities strongly agree with the statement “Cheaper than the original product”.

For question 2.2 - “Readily available”, majority of the Singaporean respondents slightly agree with the statement, with the average statistical value of 2.9. For the Vietnamese respondents, the average statistical value of 2.5. The difference in the average statistical value is 0.4. From the results, we can conclude that majority of the respondents of both nationalities slightly agree with the statement “Readily available”.

For question 2.3 - “Have the latest version of the product before the legal version go on sale locally”, most of the respondents remain close to neutral (4), with the average statistical values of Singaporeans and Vietnamese both being 3.5. The majority of the respondents of both nationalities are uncertain about the statement “Have the latest version of the product before the legal version go on sale locally” as their response tend towards neutral (4).

For question 2.4 - “Other people are using it, why shouldn’t I use it too?”, most of the respondents remain relatively neutral, with the average statistical value of Singaporeans being 3.4 and Vietnamese being 3.0. Singaporean respondents are more neutral towards the statement whereas Vietnamese respondents slightly agree with it.

In the 3^rd and 4^th questions, we attempt to find out the respondents degree of approval and tendency towards software piracy indirectly through the amount of unlicensed/ pirated software products they had in their possessions and the frequency in which they acquire new unlicensed/ pirated software products. After which we will compare the data obtain from the Singaporean and Vietnamese respondents.

For the 3^rd question, the respondents are required to indicate the percentage of unlicensed/pirated software products they owned with respect to the total number of software they owned.

From figure 3.1 and 3.2, we can see that more than half of the respondents from both nationalities who answered “YES” to the 1^st question have 50% or more of the software they own being unlicensed. In the case of Singaporean respondents the number is 20 out of a total possible number of 27. For the Vietnamese respondents, the number is 21 out of total possible number of 25.

Out of those 20 Singaporean respondents, 7 have 75-100% of their software being pirated and 13 have 50-75% of their software being pirated. And out of those 21 Vietnamese respondents, 11 have 75-100% of their software being pirated and 10 have 50-75% of their software being pirated.

It can be seen that there are more Vietnamese respondents in the last category (75-100%) than Singaporean respondents.

For question 4, the respondents are required to indicate their frequency of purchase of unlicensed software products. A scale of 1 to 7 is given, with 1 being “never having bought a single unlicensed software” and 7 indicating “frequent buying of unlicensed software”.

Singaporean

(N = 27)

Vietnamese

(N = 25)

Frequency of purchasing unlicensed software

3.7

3.4

The average statistical values derived from the data collected are 3.7 for Singaporean respondents and 3.4 for Vietnamese respondents. There is not much different in the values. The majority of the respondents do not frequently buy pirated software and they are rather neutral towards this, as indicated by the average values of 3.7 and 3.4.

But what come across as puzzling is that from question 3, the statistics obtained clearly indicate that the respondents have a large percentage of their software owned being pirated/unlicensed. Yet, the statistics in question 4 show that most of them do not frequently purchase unlicensed software.

In question 5, we attempt to find out for the respondents who choose not to use unlicensed software, what are their reasons for doing so. In order to achieve this, we have come up with 4 likely reasons for doing so. And for each of these 4 reasons, the respondents are to choose, from a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being strongly agree and 7 being strongly disagree), to indicate their sentiments towards the given reasons.

The percentile distribution of the respondents’ answers is shown in figure 5.1 and 5.2.

Also shown in the table below are the four reasons and their average statistical values.

Reasons	Singaporean (N = 4)	Vietnamese (N = 5)
1. unethical	4.3	4.4
2. illegal	4.3	4.2
3. bugs, flaws or errors	2.8	2.6
4. no warranty	4.5	4.4

For question 5.1 “because it is unethical”, question 5.2 “because it is illegal” and question 5.4 “because there is no warranty”, majority of the respondents remain relatively neutral, with the average statistical values for all 3 questions deviating slightly from 4. Generally, there isn’t much different between the Singaporean respondents and the Vietnamese respondents

For question 5.3 “because bugs, flaws or errors as well as malfunctions”, the average statistical value for Singaporean is 2.8 whereas that of the Vietnamese is 2.6. Once again, the results show that there isn’t much different between people of the two countries.

The results derived are some what different from what we have expected. For most of the respondents who do not use or own unlicensed software, their main concern is not that the software is illegal and that engaging in such acts is unethical, but rather due to the unreliability of pirated software.

In question 6 and 7, we attempt to find out about the respondents’ perception of the severity of the problem of software piracy, indirectly, through their knowledge of other people in their social circles and families who engaged in software piracy related activities, and their general awareness of the problem of software piracy.

For question 6, the respondents are to indicate how many of the people in their social circle own/use pirated software. The statistics are shown in figure 6.1 and 6.2.

From figure 6.1, it can be seen that out the 31 Singaporean respondents, all of them know someone in their social circle who uses pirated software, 12 of them knowing more than 20 people. From figure 6.2, majority of the Vietnamese respondents (out of a total of 30) know someone who uses pirated software, with 11 of them knowing more than 20 people. There is little difference between the Singaporean respondents and their Vietnamese counterparts.

In question 7, we ask the respondents about their thoughts about the severity of the problem of software piracy.

From figure 7 and the table above, the average statistic value of the respondents seems to indicate that most of the respondents feel that the problem of software piracy is moderately serious, with average values of 4.3 for Singaporean and 4.0 for Vietnamese.

In question 8, the respondents are required to indicate how strongly they feel about what the pirated software vendors are doing (whether it is right).

Majority of the respondents, irrespective of nationalities, indicated neutrality when answering this question, with both the average values of Singaporean and Vietnamese respondents being 4.3.

From question 9 and 10, we attempt to find out whether the respondents are aware of the prevailing laws with regards to the usage and sale of unlicensed/pirated software products and whether they are aware of the legal implications of their actions. In question 9, we attempt to find out about the respondents’ general awareness of the laws regarding software piracy, while in question 10, we attempt to find out about whether such legal implications ever cross the respondents minds when they use pirated software. The data collected from the 3 questions are shown in figure 9 and 10 respectively.

From figure 9, most of the respondents had knowledge of the existence of anti-software piracy laws. For Singaporean respondents, 26 are aware of such laws and the legal implications while 5 indicate that they don not know. For Vietnamese respondents, 19 are aware of the legal implications of using illegal software while 11 are ignorant about it.

From figure 10, only 7 Singaporean respondents thought about the consequences when they use pirated software while 24 indicate that the thought never cross their minds. For the Vietnamese respondents, half of them (15) had thought of the legal issues involved whereas the other half (15) never.

Combining the both figure 9 and 10, we can derive that although a large number of the Singaporean respondents had prior knowledge about the anti-software piracy laws, awareness of the legal implications of such actions does not seem to deter them from using pirated software. For the Vietnamese, slightly more than half are aware of the consequences of their actions and half of them think about the legal issues involved.

In question 11 and 12, we attempt to find out the respondents’ perceptions of how effective their governments are in dealing with the problems of software piracy. For question 11, respondents are to indicate whether they are aware of any measures their governments have taken to combat piracy. And in question 12, the respondents are required to indicate how effective they feel the measures are in curbing the rising trend of software piracy.

From figure 11, most of the Singaporean respondents are aware of the government’s efforts in combating software piracy. For the Vietnamese respondents, the numbers are rather balanced, with 16 knowing of their government’s efforts to curb software piracy and 14 who does not know.

But from the table derived from figure 12, both respondents from both countries are relatively neutral towards the effectiveness of the measures adopted in stop software piracy.