Communications of the ACM
Over $50 Billion Lost to Software Piracy: Report
A shopper looks at counterfeit computer programs in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Credit: AFP
Software piracy cost technology companies more than $50 billion around the world last year, with Asia accounting for the largest share of losses, an industry report said Tuesday (May 11).
Despite successes in the fight to protect intellectual property rights, on average 43 percent of software used in computers worldwide in 2009 was pirated, up from 41 percent the year prior, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said. Worldwide, piracy losses reached $51.4 billion in 2009, with $16.5 billion of this in the Asia-Pacific, the annual report found. The BSA said that for every $100 of legitimate software sales in 2009, another $75 worth of unlicensed programs were sold. The deluge of counterfeits was largely due to the growth of the personal computer market in Brazil, India and China, the group said.
The average piracy rate in Asia-Pacific was 59 percent, which means that of the more than 900 million units installed last year, more than 530 million were unlicensed, said Victor Lim, a vice president at IDC, which carried out the study with the software alliance.
From AFP
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