So back in the day we used walk to the CD store and pick ourselves a MS Office suite or a new Windows DVD for a mere Rs. 30/- or 50 at best. There were softwares included on one disc and a world of opportunities rested in our CD bags/cases.
Imagine the pain for those residing abroad have to go through since they could not get their hands on the desired softwares as readily as we could in Pakistan. Heck, we had so many that we didn’t know what to do they did or their purpose were apart from Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Norton or McAfee Antivirus and handful of others. Hardly 10 at best were needed but we had loads of them at our disposal.
The upgrades weren’t a problem neither was registering the product. The serial number and crack keys were provided therein. You just copy paste or enter the desired key and voila! It’s as functional as for the guy paying for it in States. Don’t you just love it here, in your country? If a new version of the software was launched, we only had to wait before it became available on every CD walay uncle ki dukaan pr in the neighborhood or you could always take a trip to Saddar and drop by at Rambow Center, Karachi. Them days!
Things changed over the past decade or so and came in torrents. Download all you want with activation manuals and key generators all in there for your ease. Although the world benefitted at large with this torrent influx but here in Asia Pacific – the already reigning champions in the software piracy domain, jumped to new heights.
Let me share some stats for your perusal. The global piracy percentage stands at 39% according to a survey whereas in Asia Pacific a whopping 61% as of 2015. Bangladesh tops the chart whereas Pakistan and Indonesia came second. See the table below taken from the report titled “Seizing Opportunity Through License Compliance”, compiled by The Software Alliance group formed under Microsoft . The sample size comprises 22,000 computer users and includes business, OS, gaming and security softwares.
Yet again we’re going places, only this time with piracy.
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