Vietnam: Where pirated apps match personal budgets
The bootlegging in operation at a store in Hanoi, one of many such shops that sell pirated goods.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Editor's note: CNET editor and Crave contributor Dong Ngo is spending part of December in his homeland of Vietnam and is filing occasional dispatches chronicling his impressions of how technology has permeated the culture there. Click here for more of Dong's stories from abroad.
HANOI, Vietnam--You say you can't afford the $699 price tag on Adobe Photoshop CS4? How about a $698 discount?
That's the kind of deal you'll get here in Hanoi, where pirated software--and virtually any other kind of digital content--is sold indiscriminately at many local shops for about $15,000 dong (90 cents) per DVD, or half of that for a CD.
These shops are open, just like any legitimate business. I checked one out and was impressed by the number of software titles it carried. While there, I also learned a thing or two about the piracy industry here in Vietnam.
The store I visited is a small shop facing a busy street, with walls covered in CD and DVD sleeves--all black and white copies of those found in the original software package.
Vietnam
Virtually any PC software application I've ever heard of can be found here: Windows operating systems, popular Office suites, and high-end professional software such as Photoshop, AudoCad, and Corel Draw, are available in any versions. I even found different builds of Windows 7, which is currently still in pre-beta and is supposedly available to only a limited few.
These software applications, of course, come with "crack"--a hacking application that allows for bypassing the vendors' antipiracy mechanism. All are guaranteed to work; if not, you'll get another copy that does or get your money back.
Out of curiosity, I asked one of the shop's two operators, Nam--a friendly 24-year-old man--where this copious amount of software comes from. He said there's somebody who gets his shop the "master" copy of any titles he wants, and the master copy costs just about $5.
I made up a fancy name of a nonexistent software title and asked for it. After searching his large database to no avail, Nam indeed picked up the phone and made a quick call. After that he told me to come back the next day. "They don't have it now, but they probably will soon, don't worry!" he said, sounding very sure.
Of course, not everything in this shop is bootlegged. There is also stuff you can legally download for free, such as OpenOffice, Linux distros, and service packs. It's a good way to save time and Internet bandwidth at home.
The shop's business is going very well. Nam said it sells about $100 worth of discs a day, which comes to about $3,000 a month. However, Nam himself gets paid only $150 a month, which is a little above average for a Hanoian.
A short list of what you can get at one Hanoi store for less than $1 per DVD.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)It's interesting to note that Nam, if he ever wanted Photoshop SC4, would have to save for months before he could afford it at the full retail price. Maybe that's the main reason bootlegging is so rampant here in Vietnam.
I talked to Trung, a college student, who stopped by the shop to fetch the latest revision of Medal of Honor. Trung is an avid gamer whose knowledge of video games could easily land him a job at GameSpot, even in these tough economic times.
He told me there's no way he could afford any of the games he's played--and he's played a lot of them--at the retail price. "I hate having to use some sort of hack for them to work, but it's worth it. It's a no-brainer, really," he said. The truth is that getting even one game legally could easily cost a student like him a whole month of food and rent.
According to the Business Software Alliance's and International Data Corporation's Fifth Annual Global Software Piracy Study (PDF), 85 percent of all software currently used in Vietnam is pirated. In 2007, piracy in Vietnam accounted for $200 million in losses for copyright owners.
I wonder how they came up with that number, however, as it is hard to calculate what the real "loss" would be if antipiracy laws were strictly enforced. Most people here would stop using a lot of software applications at all. They simply could not afford them.
The truth is the law doesn't seem to be strictly enforced here. Asked what would happen if the police found out, Nam said that he knows all the officers in the local unit and that they know what the shop does. He hinted that there was some sort of arrangement and the shop would close on those days, several times a year, when antipiracy inspectors head out to clean up bootlegged software.
In the event that the owners get caught and their equipment is confiscated, it's not hard to start anew. All a software shop needs are a couple of computers equipped with fast burners and large hard drives.
It seems bootlegging and using bootlegged software have become so common that nobody here considers those practices illegal or even "bad." They don't even seem aware of the fact that the software might come with malicious code designed to compromise their computer's security. It's going to take a long time for people here to change this mentality, if that's even possible.
In the meantime, it would probably be helpful to price the software differently for low-income parts of the world, such as Vietnam. After all, it's better for software vendors to have their products used for less than for nothing. And I would think that it's still better to have them used for nothing than not used at all.
The good news is that there are vendors that are making just such price adjustments. BitDefender, for example, has been using separate pricing for the Vietnamese market. Its Total Security 2009 suite, for example, costs $59.95 in the U.S. but only 399,000 dong ($24) in Vietnam. Kaspersky is doing the same thing.
While these two won't change much about the piracy landscape in Vietnam for now (and I think their prices could still go a little lower), they will hopefully raise awareness that legitimate software can be affordable, help create jobs, and come with benefits that are worth the price. Now that's a start.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
About piracy, some times the government "asks" to have it. IDK about Vietnam, but here in Brazil, there is a HUGE tax over this kind of thing, hardware and software here are about 2 or 3 times more expensive than on USA or Europe. How about paying $1000 on an iPhone or $600 on the most basic 7" EeePC, $300 for Guitar Hero, anyone?
About piracy on stuff like Photoshop, I actually think that it might be good for Adobe. For example, people who actually use it to work will pay, but people who just use to at home, to edit one or two photos, wouldn't pay, they would use something like GIMP instead. But those people who didn't pay for PS(or any other software like it) learned how to use it, and if someday they happen to need a image-editing software at work, they will buy Photoshop instead of something else.
About piracy, some times the government "asks" to have it. IDK about Vietnam, but here in Brazil, there is a HUGE tax over this kind of thing, hardware and software here are about 2 or 3 times more expensive than on USA or Europe. How about paying $1000 on an iPhone or $600 on the most basic 7" EeePC, $300 for Guitar Hero, anyone?
About piracy on stuff like Photoshop, I actually think that it might be good for Adobe. For example, people who actually use it to work will pay, but people who just use to at home, to edit one or two photos, wouldn't pay, they would use something like GIMP instead. But those people who didn't pay for PS(or any other software like it) learned how to use it, and if someday they happen to need a image-editing software at work, they will buy Photoshop instead of something else.
I'm not saying I support piracy, I'm just saying that it happens and lowering prices and taxes is the way to prevent it.
$342 is still out of the price range of a Hanoian though.
A good time spent saving up can get it.
Second hand hardware also works
The statement that developers would rather have their products "used for nothing rather than not used at all" speaks volumes. Take the time and effort to develop a product, see people steal it and see how you feel.
And where has owning software become a right rather than privilege? If you can't afford something, don't buy it! Or maybe, God forbid, go out and work and save until you can afford it.
Add to that the complicity with local authorities, it seems as though the country needs a course in ethics. Poverty does not justify criminal behavior. I'm surprised the software companies hasn't introduced a virus of their own to totally destroy the hardware of the criminals (yes, criminals) who purchase stolen property. Or is what these individuals are doing not criminal?
The long term effects is simply more anarchy, less respect for society and the rules of law that protect everyone.
I don't see pirated software has anything to do with Communism. So, this comment is offensive. I'd like CNET to remove and warn the poster.
Let's see what'll happen.
"If you can't afford something, don't buy it! Or maybe, God forbid, go out and work and save until you can afford it."
I don't think you understood from the article that some Vietnamese workers CAN'T POSSIBLY make enough money in a logical timeline to afford software like CS4. And what about tech startups? Vietnam is growing incredibly rapidly, and unavailible software only hampers that growth. What if a graphic-design startup couldn't afford CS4?
The shopkeeper makes so much less than the revenue because there are such thing as costs. The article did imply that they might be bribing the police station, but who are we to criticize their way of life? can you live on $150/month?
your politically charged welcome is not welcome on a message board about a poor developing country trying to technologically keep up with powerhouses like the US. Did you know that America had a policy of blockade to drop prices on manufactured growth during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution? do you know why they did that? so as to shelter and develop their industry from powerful rival economies like England's. This case is very similar because Vietnam and it's people are trying to develop Vietnam into a country as influential as the US, at least techonologicaly.
I"m not a liberal. I'm not a conservative. Politics have nothing to do with this article. And i ask you, for the sake of your name "uamerican," please don't act so aloof by saying that Vietnam "needs a course in ethics." I don't think you're that intolerant, and if you are, i hope you can learn to be tolerant of cultures that aren't based on Puritan ideals.
And finally, let me ask you. do anti-piracy laws protect you? and from what?
please, think before you post again.
There are people that couldn't buy Photoshop if they saved up all year for it.
software vendors should consider the people's monthly income in the distributing their software's price
Because the software company like Adobe or microsoft may come in and start they "bussiness" and try they best to wipe out the piracy market....
If these geniuses think that software pricing should be scaled to a person's income, then the same principles should be applied to cars, appliances, clothes, food, haircuts, and massages. The only exception should be cameras, since their price points seem to be acceptable to all Asians.
It's no wonder Obama was elected given the rampant acceptance of socialism in people's minds!
- by equilibrium009 December 17, 2008 10:05 PM PST
- Once Again this kind of topic are not new, what the cnet editor just did .
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (46 Comments)Simply like calling the original software company to take out piracy from Vietnam !
Because this kind of news happen everywhere(not even a news anymore), to really care about the 3rd world economic .
This topic should not show to the public ! (every computer geek knew about it, included the "bright" people from big ass software company!)