The great American artist and author of the comic strip
‘Calvin and Hobbes’ Bill Watterson once said “I know the world isn’t fair, but
why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?”. Often we may come across such
situations where the playing field is not leveled and our opponent may be at a
distinct advantage. As an illustration of the above point, let us take an
example from the world of business. Cost of production is very often an extremely
important criterion for remaining competitive. And today, the use of IT, which
also adds a cost component, has undoubtedly become one of the most important
parts of how a business is run right from material purchase to product design
to supply chain management to managing finances to designing marketing
campaigns; the list could go on and on.
Now let us add an element of unfairness to the situation.
Suppose, you are an entrepreneur working extra hard to come up with new designs
and solutions to the problems faced by the customers in your industry. Being
ethical and law abiding, you make it a point to use only genuine software and
authentic IT solutions. But now comes along your competitor who not only
provides the same solutions that you do but also can do it cheaper than you.
The reason is that not only does he use cheap and pirated software versions but
even his suppliers and sub – suppliers use such software to design their
products and run their respective businesses. The result, there is a cascading
effect on prices and the final price at which your competitor offers his
products are much lower than at what you offer.
At this point, definitely you would identify very well
with the quote mentioned above. Thinking that with such unethical competitors
practicing such unfair means, you may never win, you start wondering that all
was lost. Such situations are faced almost daily by honest enterprises the
world over. And with the various components of the value engine and the supply
chain being spread across different continents at times, these issues are
extremely hard to detect and seemingly impossible to surmount.
But not anymore! A new law by the name of Unfair
Competition Act or UCA has been passed in two states of the United States,
namely Washington and Louisiana; which aims to level the competitive playing
field while promoting responsible business practices across manufacturing
industries.
In fact, the State of Washington passed the law as early
as the 4th of April this year whence it was declared to be a
violation of the state’s unfair competition laws if a manufacturer used “stolen
or misappropriated information technology in its business operations”. This
particular law not only creates a liability for the manufacturer directly but
also for the suppliers or third party vendors who may not be OEMs. As an
example, if a company selling products in Washington or Louisiana itself uses
or even if its suppliers use pirated software anywhere in the world, the said
company is prohibited from doing business in the aforementioned states.
The effectiveness and potential uses of the UCA has
prompted even other states such as Massachusetts, Kentucky, New York,
Connecticut, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon to adopt similar measures. As a
matter of fact, as of now, as many as 39 states in the US have signed a strong
resolution to fight against the usage of pirated software in manufacturing
operations.
In fact, the primary aim of the law is not to punish non
– compliance, but to encourage compliance. As an example, the law even provides
defense and a safe harbor wherein enterprises can guard themselves through
compliance efforts. To summarize, the fruits borne out of a level playing field
and fair practices for international trade far outweigh the litigation and
implementation costs and is expected to become a norm across the US shortly in
the future. For the honest manufacturer exporter, suddenly life doesn’t appear
so unfair.
