Piracy In Pakistan

Piracy has become a huge problem in Pakistan. You can easily buy pirated movies, songs, games and soft-wares from any CD/DVD store for as low as 0.50$. Most of the people here don't even know the difference between genuine and pirated soft-wares. In the same way piracy is found in books and even in clothing from big brands like Nike and Reebok. Computer soft-wares have

been affected the most by piracy. There is no such store here in Pakistan that sells original soft-wares and games. That is mostly because people here can't afford to buy 20$-50$ soft-wares, same goes with books and clothing. When people don't even know the difference between a legitimate and pirated copy then why would they pay 10x more than they're already paying? Not many people here have access to the internet so they can't even verify the soft-ware from the manufacturer's website. Companies have lost millions of dollars worth of games and soft-wares in Pakistan, resulting in a big loss.

The main reason for the rapid increase of piracy in Pakistan is that there is no serious punishment for selling fake and pirated stuff. Sometimes, even the people that sell these programs don't even know they're pirated because they too buy from illegal sources. This is a big problem and will not be easy tackle as there are so many illegal businesses running. The government should first educate the people about this issue and after that, they should implement severe punishments for those who are promoting piracy and put an end to this illegal act.

I asked a question on google support "Why YouTube partnership program isn't in Pakistan?" They answered, "The YouTube partnership program isn't in Pakistan because your copyright law is very flawed."

If our copyright law stays this way companies will be more afraid than they already are in investing in Pakistan.