Software Piracy Rates Fall in Sixty-Seven Countries – BSA

WASHINGTON, DC - The Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the software industry and its hardware partners, released on May 14, 2008, the fifth annual global PC software piracy study. According to the BSA, the study was conducted by IDC, the information technology industry’s global market research and forecasting firm.

Of the 108 countries included in the report, the use of pirated software dropped in sixty-seven, and rose in only eight. However, because the worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy countries, the worldwide PC software piracy rate increased by three percentage points to 38% in 2007.

Among the study’s key findings:

• Among the nations studied, Russia led the way with a one-year drop of seven points to 73%, and a five-year drop of 14 points. Russia’s piracy rate 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.

• The three lowest-piracy countries were the US (20%), Luxembourg (21%) and New Zealand (22%). The three highest-piracy countries were Armenia (93%), Bangladesh (92%) and Azerbaijan (92%).

• Piracy rates dropped slightly in many low-piracy markets where rates have been stagnant for several years, including the US (-1%), UK (-1%) and Austria (-1%). Many other developed economies experienced a continuing gradual decline, including Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and Taiwan.

• Market factors contributing to increasing piracy rates include: dynamics in the PC market where the fastest growth is in the consumer and small business sectors; these are the hardest sectors in which to lower piracy; and expanded Internet and broadband access. With approximately 700 million people expected to go online for the first time between 2008-2012, 76% of them will be in emerging markets. Access to pirated software will continue to shift from the streets to the Internet.

• Market factors contributing to decreasing piracy rates include: increasing globalization among countries in emerging markets; technologies such as technical protection measures like digital rights management (DRM) which software developers are building directly into their products; and new software distribution models such as software-as-a-service.
According to BSA President and CEO, Robert Holleyman, the ‘blueprint’ for reducing software piracy includes education, smart government policies, effective enforcement and legalization programs.

BSA’s five-point “blueprint” for reducing software piracy and reaping the economic benefits includes:

• Increasing public education and awareness of the value of Intellectual Property (IP) and the risks of using unlicensed software;

• Updating national copyright laws to implement World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) obligations, in order to enable better and more effective enforcement against digital and online piracy;

• Creating strong enforcement mechanisms as required by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS), including tough anti-piracy laws;

• Dedicating significant government resources to the problem, including national IP enforcement units, cross-border cooperation, and training for local officers and judiciary officials;

• Leading by example by implementing software management policies and requiring the public sector to use only legitimate software.

The BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study covers piracy of all packaged software that runs on personal computers, including desktops, laptops and ultra-portables. The study does not include other types of software such as server- or mainframe-based software. IDC used proprietary statistics for software and hardware shipments and enlisted IDC analysts in more than sixty countries to confirm software piracy trends.