Because of what there are copies to break – Newspaper Kommersant No. 2 (7447) dated 01/10/2023

Specialized corporate software (software) appeared on Ozon, Wildberries and Avito. We are talking about pirated versions of Autodesk and Adobe software, as well as the sale of access to licensed copies sold by corporate users. Marketplaces emphasize that sellers are responsible for the legality of software, but in case of claims from copyright holders, ads can be removed. Experts believe that now the fight against pirates in the Russian Federation is not very meaningful for Western suppliers, but soon they may find a way to return to the country through sublicensing.

“Kommersant” discovered that “perpetual licenses” for foreign corporate software appeared on the Ozon and Wildberries marketplaces. For example, a perpetual license for Autodesk AutoCAD 2022 costs 2.5 thousand rubles, a set of Adobe Master Collection 2022 programs (includes 23 Adobe programs, including Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, etc.) will cost 5 thousand rubles . Judging by the description of the goods, sellers send flash drives to buyers with instructions for activating the software.

Ads for the sale of access to software from Autodesk “Kommersant” found on “Avito”. One of the sellers explained that the company he works for is registered in Latvia and therefore can purchase a volume license for Autodesk software. The seller himself, according to him, for 1 thousand rubles. gives the buyer access to download a copy of the Software from under his corporate account.

Ozon Kommersant was told that the site prohibited the sale of software without physical media, such as activation codes, payment cards, subscriptions, but you can sell software on disks or memory cards – “in such cases, the seller is responsible for the legality of the software.” Wildberries also emphasized that the software is implemented by “independent sellers.” Representatives of the sites declined to say how many such ads were published, but assured that they were ready to withdraw the goods from sale in case of complaints from copyright holders. Avito clarified that the copyright holders did not request to remove the ads.

In the spring of 2022, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, foreign software vendors, including Microsoft, Adobe and Autodesk, stopped selling their products in Russia, but the interest of Russians in foreign software remained high throughout the year: in November, Peer Trace revealed 184,000 download facts and distribution of pirated copies of Microsoft Office per day (see Kommersant of November 9).

Officially, a software license from the mentioned manufacturers cost 30–70 thousand rubles. per year, notes the head of the IT department of Reksoft Evgeny Chertok. He believes that the offers on Ozon and Wildberries are “illegal content downloaded from torrents.” By all indications, we are talking about pirated software – “this is evidenced by the low price, the absence of an agreement with the copyright holder, the deviation of the installation procedure from that described in the original documentation of the vendor,” agrees Igor Orellana Ursua, executive and technical director of Seasoft Development JSC. There is a demand for such software among corporate users, since they have been working with it for many years, said Valentin Makarov, president of Russoft.

There are simply no Russian alternatives to Autodesk and Adobe, Mr. Chertok says. “There is something approximate that can reach the required level in the absence of foreign software and serious investments in development, and most importantly, in mathematics and graphics,” he notes. But Mr. Makarov claims that there are analogues, and “their compliance with foreign programs is a matter of time.” Orellana Ursua names nanoCAD, Model Studio CS and CADLib.

Russian consumers “during more than twenty years of educational programs and systematic pressure on pirates have developed an understanding that you have to pay for software, but there is not always an understanding of who,” says Dmitry Sokolov, director of the Association of Software Suppliers. According to him, the companies that left the Russian Federation can formally fight the distribution of pirated copies through lawyers, but “if earlier such work was aimed at increasing sales and was carried out at the expense of it, now it will be absolutely unprofitable.” Mr. Sokolov at the same time believes that foreign vendors will look for ways to sell software in the Russian Federation, albeit not directly, for example, through companies from “friendly” countries with broad sublicensing rights and without territorial restrictions.

Nikita Korolev, Yuri Litvinenko