Source Code Theft Threatens Nation’s Software Industry

The nation’s software industry has over the years been bedeviled with teething problems such as piracy and unbridled importation and patronage of foreign software. However, investigation revealed that source code theft may soon be the latest burden investors and professional s in the industry may have to contend with as quacks have identified this area as major source of cheap money. 

THE GROWING trend of software piracy in the country has for long be a subject of concern for regulatory agencies, investors and professionals in the industry based on the damaging impact on their investments and the economy generally.

However, investigation indicated that despite sundry efforts to deal with the patristic monster of piracy in the industry, the problem is still prevalent as less than 50 per cent of software in the economy is believed to be purchased from developers or their authorized vendors.

Even as stakeholders, including the governments, are determined to sanitise the market, a new dimension has been added by pirates and their other ICT fraudsters to the war with the latest but gradually booming source code theft menace.

Although not yet popular in the industry, our investigations showed that some notable software developers in the country are currently having involved in a running battle against source code thieves, with one of them alleging the theft of his code by another professional colleague.

Indeed, it was gathered that the software developer, whose software is believed to have a strong share of the nation’s software market, may run into further losses following an alleged stealing of his source code by somebody he trusted.

According to a computer programmer and founder of Compucat System, Emmanuel Okitiakpe, the source code is the brain behind every software released by a developer into the market noting that without the source code, the developer is no longer in business.

He explained that software is usually written in a kind of computer instructions or programme before it can be referred to as software saying that before such programme is written, it is first analysed to solve a particular problem.

Okitiape clarified further that it is after such programme had been carefully written that it is given to the computer, and it is that state that it becomes software saying that after that the developer can then begin the process of debugging the software using the source code.

Corroborating the importance of the source code as stated by Okitiakpe, the President of Programos Software Group Limited, Emmanuel Amos said that if at that point the source code is stolen or copied by another person the investment made by the original owner of the software nullified noting that in such situation the one who stolen the source code may just be using it do another business.

Amos explained that it is a little easy for the original developer to start all over if the source code is merely copied, since it is possible for him to start rewriting the programme for the software saying that if the source code is stolen without the a copy, the developer is invariably left naked.

He further described the source code as an asset to the developer by which he uses to maintain a relationship with those clients that are using his software stressing that any lost of that means that the developer is out of business since he will not be able to improve further on the product.

Investigations reflected that although source code theft was not as common as that of software piracy yet the damage it is capable of doing to the investments of a developer can be substantial.

The Programos boss pointed out that sharing income may be lesser to bear noting that more precarious is a situation where the owner of the source code does not known that it has been be stolen, since such crime is usually committed by a trusted person.

He said that the financial implication is that the trade security of someone has been taken away from the person thereby making it impossible for the individual to do maintenance work on the software, which is an additional income for the developer of the software besides actual cost of the sale for the software.

He disclosed that due to the technical nature of software piracy the Nigerian Copyright Commission is founding difficult handling it adding that the stealing of source code is even more complex since it is a near abstract product.

Amos called on the Federal Government to set up a Software Copyright Commission that will be made up of experts in the field of programming stressing that the practitioners are in a better position to understand the gravity of source code theft.

He said further that the lost of source code could also affect other staff working in the company whose source code for a particular software has been stole.

According to Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) latest findings, an increase in the use of genuine software by one percent contributes $73 billion to the global economy while pirated software contributes $20 billion.

On the economic losses, the International Data Company, IDC disclosed that consumers globally will spend 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion identifying and recovering from the impact of malware, which arises from the use of pirated software.

The IDC further said in his latest report that businesses all over the world will be spending $114 billion to deal with the effects of malware-induced cyber-attacks.