“Yes, I’m still selling copied software during Ramadan, but the amount is down,” said the Indian from Kerala. “I don’t think it’s so much about it being Ramadan. It’s the summer and a lot of people are on vacation, so our sales are down.”
The man spoke to me as I sorted through a stack of pirated software titles piled up on a table in the back corridor on the second floor of Al-Dossary Towers, on Dhahran Road in Alkhobar.
“I usually sell about two thousand pieces per month, but so far in August I’ve only sold five hundred. That was about the same as what I sold during July. People will buy when school comes again,” he said.
When I arrived at Al-Dossary Towers on Monday night, at first I was impressed to note that no one approached me offering CDs. Then I went upstairs and asked the salesman at the sunglass kiosk where I could buy CDs. “What kind of CDs do you want?” he inquired. “Asli (original)?” “No,” I answered. “Tejari (commercial).” The salesman motioned to a man stationed at a refreshment stand and I was led to a table in a back corridor where I was presented with a stack of plastic sleeves to sort through and make my CD selection. Any title was SR15 and it was claimed that they came from Bahrain.
The pirated software catalog was impressive. “Adobe Creative Suite,” “MS Visual Studio 2010,” “Windows 7 Professional,” “Mac OS X Leopard,” “Adobe Photoshop CS4,” “MS Office 2010,” “McAfee Total Protection 2010,” “AutoCad Power Collection” — there were hundreds of titles on offer.
The Keralite said that he wasn’t a bad person. He only sold counterfeit CDs because he didn’t make enough money to support his family. His earning were “just” SR5 for every CD sold — not impressive till the multiplier is considered. When I whipped out my camera to take a photo of the pirated CD collection, the Keralite quickly gathered up his wares and fled.
Minutes later, there was a flurry of activity in the shopping center as men carrying large boxes of CDs bolted down the escalators to escape what they believed was an impending raid. I entered a nearby hardware shop and asked what the salesmen there thought about the selling of pirated software. Hearing my question, Hamza stopped reciting Qu’ran and answered, “Not everybody buys it. People with money buy original software. Normal people buy pirated. It may be illegal, I know, and I wouldn’t buy it, but as a bad action, it’s not too bad.”
Hamza remarked that times have changed. Laptops are the most popular type of PC now and they come pre-loaded with an original operating system. Plus, people don’t have to come to Al Dossary to buy illegal software, they can download it directly off the Internet. There’s also the Microsoft factor.
“Microsoft is mean,” said Shaikh, another computer salesman at Al-Dossary Towers. “They come around with the government’s inspectors and they look through everything. A licensed shop found selling pirated can lose its license or at least face a fine. Personally, I wouldn’t use pirated. It’s too much hassle. Copies have a lot of bugs. I buy original software or use free online services.”
Hearing about my encounter with the Keralite selling pirated software, Islam, who runs a gaming shop at Al Dossary Towers decided to set the record straight on the issue of profits from the selling of counterfeit titles.
“That man’s profit is at least half or greater from every CD or DVD that he sells,” he advised. “Maybe the original duplicate came from Bahrain. But those CDs and DVDs are copied here in Saudi Arabia. Personally, I hate pirates. I sell an original game for SR250 and make SR20 profit. Counterfeiters sell for SR15 and make maybe SR10 and they have no overhead. It’s not fair. At my shop I only sell original gaming titles — no copies. There’s a big demand for originals now. The day World of Warcraft was released I sold 160 pieces — all original. For Starcraft 2, I sold 90 pieces, all I had, in two days. “
Islam said that for the Playstation 3 there are no counterfeits available and he believes that Microsoft has flooded the market with damaged copies of games for the Xbox, since more than 90 percent of the counterfeits don’t work.
“If you really want to buy pirated software, games and movies, small shops outside supermarkets are the best places to find them. That’s where the authorities should increase their surveillance,” Islam said. “I want the authorities to keep up the efforts to control the counterfeits. It’s good for the honest businesses.”
— MYBI
