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"We are developing consumer electronic products equipped with hard disks in India."

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DQC News Bureau
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As regional director of Autodesk South Asia Pacific, André Pravaz is

responsible for business development, sales, marketing, finance and channel

strategy operations in ASEAN, India, Australia and New Zealand. Since he joined

Autodesk in 1998 as MD, Australia and New Zealand, Andre has successfully

increased business by 75 percent, despite the region experiencing a sluggish

economy. He is now spear- heading the "Zero Tolerance" campaign in a

bid to check piracy. In an exclusive interview with DQCI, Andre portrays

Autodesk’s initiatives to check piracy.

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How much is piracy affecting the software business to day?



As per Business Software Alliance’s Year 2000 Piracy Rate study, India has

a piracy rate of 63 percent. This means six out of every ten installed software

in the market is pirated.

We will continue our anti-piracy activities till the market realizes we are serious about it 

André Pravaz

What measures are you taking to educate the channel on the benefits of

selling legal software?



Channel should be free from piracy activities first and be committed to

participate in anti piracy initiatives by Autodesk and BSA/NASSCOM. We are

educating the channel about the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR).

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The channel should demonstrate the importance of IPR by driving the message

that piracy is stealing and stealing is wrong. Stealing also affects the

livelihood of creators and the channel, who are in the business of selling

genuine software.

It is also important to note that everyone is involved in piracy despite

knowing that it is wrong. We will be emphasizing this at every channel event.

Autodesk had announced "Zero Tolerance" campaign towards illegal

users of Autodesk software. How successful has this campaign been and what has

been the outcome?



Our solutions cater to companies or professional firms that are involved in

creating design work. These companies value their creation and IPR as much as we

value ours.

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It is sad to know that using pirated software to create such works undermines

the very concept of mutual respect for our intellectual properties.

We have sent warning letters to illegal users of our software. Channel

partners are also encouraged to educate and advise their customers against the

use of pirated software. Some illegal users respond to this and have converted

to legal licenses.

Recently, we have just conducted an unprecedented and successful raid in six

offices of a consultancy firm in five cities across India.

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What are some of the hurdles when it comes to changing mindsets about

piracy?



One of the impediments in changing people’s mindset towards software

piracy is that they don’t understand that software theft is a crime, and like

any other theft is punishable by law.

In all crimes there is a victim. In piracy, culprits fail to understand that

their action is hurting someone else. They fail to see that each time they

install or copy pirated software, they are stealing someone else’s work and

property.

That is why we need to educate the public. The Government can

also play a pivotal role with the help of organizations like the BSA/NASSCOM.

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Our target is always to reduce piracy as much as possible. We

will continue our anti-piracy activities and continue to use the full force of

the law until the Indian market realizes that we are extremely serious about

combating this issue.

Is high price of the software in anyway encouraging

piracy?



One should compare the value and content of the software when comparing the

price of a software product. A stolen copy of the software sold at a very

cheaper price creates this notion that price of the original software is very

expensive.

We find that there is no justification for comparing prices

between original and pirated copies as "free" software products are

also being pirated. We believe that price bears no relation to piracy.

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The use of pirated software results in tremendous losses to

software developers as well as to the Government by way of tax revenues from

legitimate downstream business in the software industry in India.

Aspiring software developers in the country will also be

discouraged from creating new innovation if there is no respect for IPR and they

would be hesitant from exploiting their economic rights which would otherwise

benefit them from their creation.

What type of promotions and schemes did you run during the

year, both for partners and end-users?



We ran several promotions for the educational segment. These included

product bundles as well as special price deals for customers.

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In the commercial segment one of our most successful

promotion was a option for AutoCAD R14 customers to upgrade to any of our

vertical products at the same price as they would pay to upgrade to the latest

AutoCAD.

How has the channel responded to your schemes sales-wise?



For the scheme which offered one upgrade price either to the latest AutoCAD

or any vertical product, the channel responded very positively. In fact most

partners saw an increase of 30 to 50 percent business during the last month of

this promotion.

What new products are on the anvil from your end?



We’ve just announced the launch of Autodesk Inventor Series on 31 Jan 2002

and have done a launch seminar series covering major cities in India in April

2002.

What according to you is the most cost-effective way to

reach out to the channel and in turn to the customer?



E-mail is the most cost effective measure. However, sometimes we also use

telemarketing as a means to communicate new promotions to the channel,

especially when their feedback is required on certain aspects of the promotion.

SUNILA PAUL in Bangalore

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