Software piracy in Canada

Prince Edward Islanders are notorious software thieves, an industry group said today while one in three copies of business software in use in Canada's most populous province, Ontario, is a counterfeit. These findings are from the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, the Canadian chapter of the Business Software Alliance. Some excerpts from the provincial software piracy study press release are below:

ONTARIO'S SOFTWARE PIRACY RATE REACHES ALL-TIME LOW
But Problem Still Costs Ontarians Over $1 Billion Annually In Lost Wages
TORONTO, ON – The Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST), an industry alliance of software publishers, today released a study that places Ontario's software piracy rate at 35.5 per cent, the lowest rate the province has had in four straight years. The province's piracy rate is almost four points below the national average of 39.4 per cent, ranking it as the second lowest in the country after Alberta.
The independent study, conducted for CAAST and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) by International Planning and Research Corporation (IPR), indicates that in 2002, Ontario lost $210 million in retail sales of business software applications due to software piracy as well as $1 billion in wage and salary losses and 13,000 jobs.
“While Ontario is showing excellent progress in its fight against software piracy, the impact that software piracy continues to have on the local economy cannot be ignored,” said Jacquie Famulak, president CAAST. “Despite having one of the lowest piracy rates in Canada, Ontario accounts for 51 per cent of the impact of dollar losses due to piracy. As a province with a significant software industry, Ontario must continue to be diligent in preventing software piracy from becoming an even greater economic burden.”
The ranking of provincial piracy rates, starting with the highest, is: Prince Edward Island (65.3%), Newfoundland (61.5%), Nova Scotia (53.3%), Saskatchewan and Yukon (53.1% each), British Columbia (47.4%), New Brunswick (40.5%), Manitoba (39.6%), Quebec (38.6%), Northwest Territories and Nunavut (36.6%), Ontario (35.5%) and Alberta (33.6%).

Internet Population hits 150 million

I realize a lot of folks will poke holes in the methodologies used by Comscore and its competitors. Still, a couple of interesting points from the company's latest release.

First — The Internet population in the U.S. hit 150 million in September. You are a member of this population, Comscore, says, if you used the Internet from any location at least once during the month.

Second — Check out Verisign's SiteFinder-assisted numbers . . .

From the Comscore press release (which has tables):

comScore Media Metrix


COMSCORE MEDIA METRIX ANNOUNCES TOP 50 U.S. INTERNET PROPERTY RANKINGS FOR SEPTEMBER 2003

U.S. Internet Population Breaks the 150 Million Mark

RESTON, Va. October 21, 2003 – comScore Media Metrix today announced the top 50 U.S. Internet properties for the month of September 2003. comScore Media Metrix also reported that in September, the total number of U.S. Internet users passed the 150 million mark for the first time ever. Further, the total amount of time spent by Americans on the Internet grew by 3 percent in September, although the month of September is one day, or 3 percent, shorter than August. This increase in time spent online was driven almost entirely by the university population returning to campus and their computers ….

In September, there were three new entrants to the Top 50 Properties ranking. Verisign's launch of SiteFinder, which redirects mistyped URLs to its site, drove a sharp spike of 540 percent in unique visitors. This increase – the largest of any major property in September – pushed Verisign Sites from a rank of 135 in August to the number 11 position in September…

Cowpland admits to insider trading

Michael Cowpland, the founder and former CEO of software maker Corel Corp., was in front of the Ontario's stock market regulator yesterday. He is accused of and admitted yesterday to insider trading for a trade in 1997 in which he sold $20-million worth of stock a few weeks before Corel surprised the market with disastrous financial results.
This is an important case for Canadian stock market regulators. Unlike the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission, Canadian stock market regulators — there is no national regulator but one for each province — have relatively weak enforcement powers. None can, like the SEC, send anyone to jail and they have little power to actually levy fines. Any fines paid by those who break securities laws are 'voluntary' fines.
Cowpland and regulatory investigators are proposing total fines of about $1.6-million for the $20-million trade. Cowpland and investigators say the loss he avoided by the early sale is anywhere between zero and $1.3-million, so total fines of $1.6-million means he will be worse off after the fines. But critics of Canada's regulatory system say you could calculate the loss he avoided differently and that when you do that, he actually avoided losing $5-million. By that yardstick, he has still benefited from breaking the law.
You can watch the report I did on this story for last night's CTV National News here. The original statement of allegations by the Ontario Securities Commission is here.

Marjorie Ferguson

Comparing U.S. and Canadian experiences in an age of global and hegemonic electronic cultgure and communication, Ferguson argues:
“…first, that national/cultural identities are open to influence but they are not necessarily shaped by their electronic media reflection or construction and, second, that assumptions about an undifferntiated global culture as a consequence of consuming the same material and symbolic goods are reductionist and fail even on a continental North American basis. In othe words, we are not what we eat.”
“…Canada's . . . natioanl talent for self-inflicted wounds.” (p. 46)
“[America's] national symbolic exuberance.” (p. 46
“The more compelling sotry is that any distinctively Canadian television and radio survives, given seven decades of American variety, drama and sitcome overspill.”
– Marjorie Ferguson, in “Invisible divides: Communication and identity in Canada and the U.S.”, Journal of Communication, 43(2), (noted Nov. 30, 1993)

The best Windows app ever written

As a cub tech reporter many moons ago for the The Hamilton Spectator, I convinced my bosses to pay for the airfare from Toronto to San Francisco to report on a Macworld Expo. This was either the first or second Macworld for the reign of Jobs II — his return to the company he co-founded after his ouster.
As he does at most Macworlds, Jobs gave the keynote and the atmosphere was electric. I've yet to meet a business leader who can exude the excitement and charisma he can. The only think I can remember about his talk is that this was before the iMac showed up and someone got up to talk about an early version of DreamWeaver.
But I digress . . .
Earlier this week, Jobs was back on the same stage I saw him on at the Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco to announce that Apple's top-notch music software iTunes was now available (along with Apple's Music Store on Windows.) You can watch some video excerpts of his presentation at C|Net and Apple fans will get a kick out of Jobs' claim, delivered with a straight face to rousing applause that iTunes on Windows is “the best Windows app ever written.”
Sad thing is, he could be right.