For years, Georgia has been notorious for its widespread use of pirated software. But now officials in Tbilisi are vowing to address the issue, pledging in a memorandum signed with software giant Microsoft to use only properly licensed products.
“It is no secret that Georgia for years relied on unauthorized software. We can say that Georgia had the highest rate of counterfeit software usage in the world,” Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said during the March 5 signing ceremony.
Georgia was cited as the largest user of bootlegged software in a 2009 study that covered 115 nations. A 2014 study showed that the country had made little progress in stemming the problem, with roughly 90 percent of the software installed by computer users not being properly licensed.
Some observers contend that the widespread reliance on pirated software makes Georgia vulnerable to cyber-attacks. During the country’s 2008 war with Russia, Georgia suffered from massive cyber sabotage at the hands of Russian hackers.
US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland, who attended the signing ceremony, said the agreement sends a powerful message that “Georgia wants to do business in the right way, in accordance with the rule of law, respecting intellectual property,” the Interpressnews newswire reported.