Growing PC Market Helps Spread Piracy, Study Finds
Increased PC use in piracy hotspots has made the problem even worse in those locales, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said. Annual dollar losses to piracy grew $8 billion in 2007 to nearly $48 billion, the BSA said. Of 108 nations studied, use of pirate software fell in 67, rose in eight. But because PC sales grew fastest in high-piracy countries, the world PC software piracy rate rose 3 percentage points to 38% in 2007, BSA said.
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The piracy “battleground is now shifting… to emerging markets,” said BSA President Robert Holleyman. Cutting software piracy 10 percentage points over four years could boost economic growth and spur creation of new jobs by the hundreds of thousand, the IDC study, conducted for BSA, said. By 2008, PCs installed exceeded a billion worldwide, about half using pirated, unlicensed software, the IDC study said.
Software piracy in Russia fell 7 points to 73 percent in 2007. Russian piracy is “still high but it is decreasing at a fast pace as a result of legalization programs, government engagement and enforcement, user education and an improved economy,” BSA said. The U.S., Luxembourg and New Zealand had the lowest piracy incidence at 20, 21 and 22 percent respectively. The highest-piracy countries were Armenia, 93 percent, Bangladesh, 92 percent and Azerbaijan, 92 percent. Piracy rates fell slightly in many “low-piracy markets” where rates have been “stagnant” for years, including the U.S., U.K. and Austria. Piracy continues a gradual decline in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and other developed nations.
Growing broadband access will shift pirate software from the streets to the Internet, making it easier to get, BSA said. But rising globalization, adoption of DRM and other technologies and emergence of distribution models like software-as-a-service are helping decrease piracy, BSA said.