At a recently held Anti-piracy event organised by Confederation of Indian Industry, one top official from a leading MNC software vendor admitted that his company's products were not easily available in the country, despite their being targeted at the consumer segment. What is more, when he assessed the level of awareness amongst his own employees as to where their own company's products could be purchased from, the findings were disappointing. "I promised to offer Rs 5,000 to any employee who, within two hours, could buy the market leading software product developed and marketed by our company, worldwide. Unfortunately, no one got those five thousand rupees," the official narrated at the industry event.

Why blame the consumer for buying pirated products when large software vendors themselves are not able to make genuine products available?

Illustration: Pravin Temble