On May 14, 2007, an evaluation and examination panel was organized by the Working Office of the Leading Group for the Formulation of the State Intellectual Property Strategy, in order to conduct an evaluation and examination on the topic of "Survey on China's Piracy-rate of the Software Industry in 2006, which is undertaken by the Internet's Laboratory.  Zhang Qin, Deputy Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) attended the meeting and also extended his congratulations to the smooth passing of the topic. The statistic data of the survey report indicate that along with the constant strengthening of measures adopted by the Chinese government against pirated-editions, the piracy acts on software as well as the damages caused therefrom were obviously on the decline.

The survey on China's software piracy-rate in 2006 was a continuation of the specific survey conducted in 2005.  And the experts of the evaluation and examination panel included Ni Guangnan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhen Shenli, Professor of the IPR Institute, Peking University, Xu Chao, Deputy Director of the Copyright Department, National Copyright Administration and Li Shunde, Research Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.  The experts who participated in the meeting heard the analysis on and introduction to the "Research Report on the Software Piracy-Rate" presented by the topic group and raised questions and comments on some of the key issues.  In his evaluation and examination on the acceptance of the topic, Academician Ni Guangnan, head of the evaluation and examination panel, made some proposals on behalf of the panel.  He suggested that on the basis of assimilating the experts' opinions and comments, further efforts should be made by the topic group in the future, to standardize the concept and calculation module of the software piracy-rate, raise the quantity of sample survey and the accuracy of data processing and to improve data accumulation, focusing on the orientation, level and comparability of the index.  He also suggested that the relevant departments continue to organize the software piracy-rate survey on a yearly basis.

Finally, Deputy Commissioner Zhang Qin delivered a speech on behalf of SIPO.  He confirmed the scientific methodology and accurate outcome of the topic research and hopes that in the future specific research, there will be a continuous follow-up on the key datum and the research report be constantly improved, so that the topic will give even more basis for reference and decision-making.

According to the spokesman of the topic group, the sales volume of China's software industry (including computer software products, panel software products, software service and export), reached RMB 480 billion, of which, the sales volume of software products (including computer software products and panel software products) reached RMB 273.6 billion.  If we calculate the pirated software according to the market value, the piracy-rate of the entire software industry will be decreased from 26 percent of 2005 to 24 percent, and the piracy-rate of software products will be decreased from 40 percent of 2005 to 36 percent.  If we calculate according to the total sets of computer software installed in the year, the piracy-rate will be decreased from 36 percent of 2005 to 20 percent.  If we calculate the sets of computer software according to the charges of the year for installation, the piracy-rate will be decreased from 66 percent of 2005 to 63 percent, of which, the piracy-rate of the institutional end-users will be decreased from 48 percent to 39 percent, and the piracy-rate of the individual end-users will be decreased from 80 percent to 78 percent.

It could be seen from the research outcome of the survey that the measures taken by the relevant departments of the Chinese government against pirated editions in 2006 had achieved obvious results and that the piracy acts as well as the damages caused therefrom were obviously on the decline, of which, the scale of decline in the institutional end-users was especially obvious.  Along with the popularization of the common sharing of free software, the software manufacturers are changing their strategic direction to network added-value service and industrial applied software, therefore, the decline of the proportion of software charge in the software installed was obvious, reflecting the rapid development of free software and the lessening of the harm of the piracy acts.  It was also discovered in the survey that the development of the China-made software brands is stable, with its service being gradually standardized and the software products being rapidly changed to high-value applied software.  All these changes exerted active impacts on the decline of piracy acts.

The participating experts of the evaluation and examination panel held that the research outcome of China's software piracy-rate is of important value and significance, for this will not only facilitate the global public to know the true situation of the software pirated-editions in China, but also to help the country to effectively readjust the software IPR protection policy and to provide the basis for decision-making for the development of China's software industry.  This will certainly promote the effective development of China's software industry.

2007-05-21

2007-05-21