Leader: How to cut piracy overnight

This week we've seen McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec bemoaning the problem of software piracy and getting quite aggressive in their efforts to quell it.

But is there a way - other than mobilising the lawyers - to solve this problem, which undoubtedly hits consumers as well as business?

The blend of universal broadband, improved uptime and an always-on culture within a largely mobile workforce represents something of an alignment of the planets.

Certainly in the enterprise space there is an alternative which could effectively negate the problem of pirate software: stop selling CDs, move everything online and host the software yourself.

OK, so it's not going to happen overnight as our wildly inaccurate headline suggests but companies should be speeding their moves towards software as a service.

Last month silicon.com reported that companies offering software as a service - or ASPs if you dare resurrect the term - have hit something of a sweet spot in 2006. By which we meant the blend of universal broadband, improved uptime and an always-on culture within a largely mobile workforce represents something of an alignment of the planets.

But if that doesn't tempt companies, then what about the promise of mitigating the attrition on their revenues through piracy?

In the consumer space CDs will remain a reality and problem for quite some time to come but in the enterprise the online delivery model could be a very real factor in lessening the problem of piracy. The likes of Adobe, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec, among the worst hit by piracy, should be looking at how easy it is for them to produce, ship and sell CDs - and realise it is that ease which plays into the hands of the pirates.

We're not talking about a revolution - the move to software as a service will happen to a degree in the next few years. We're talking about another very compelling reason to speed things up.