World to have $1.78 trillion worth pirated products by 2015

Manoj Rammohan

Paris, Feb 3 (PTI) Growing use of pirated and counterfeitproducts would take their total value globally to USD 1.78trillion (over Rs 80 lakh crore) by 2015 and the menace wouldbadly hurt investments and tax revenues of India and othermajor economies, a global study has said.

As per the study conducted by Business Action to StopCounterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), the total worth ofcounterfeit and pirated products is likely to more than doublefrom an estimated USD 455-650 billion in 2008 to approximatelyUSD 1.22-1.77 trillion in 2015.

Estimates suggest that software piracy rate in India isaround 65 per cent, which means 65 out of 100 softwareproducts being used in the country are pirated.

In the entertainment industry also, nearly 600 millionpirated movie DVDs are sold in India every year, as againstjust 20 million original ones and close to USD 1 trillion islost due to piracy every year.

On the other hand, a survey conducted by Microsoft latelast year showed that the majority of Indians were ready toshell out more money for genuine software and also believethat original software is more secure and stable.

"... A number of G-20 economies may be missing out onhigher FDI as a result of concerns over IPR (IntellectualProperty Rights) enforcement. The lost investment could giverise to additional tax losses of more than USD 6.25 billionacross the G-20," found the BASCAP study.

International trade in counterfeit and pirated productsis alone projected to be worth between USD 770-960 billion by2015, said the global group working against piracy.

Product counterfeiting and piracy is estimated to cost G-20 governments and consumers more than USD 125 billion everyyear. India is a part of the G-20, an influential grouping ofdeveloped and developing countries.

The G-20 economies lose approximately USD 77.5 billion intax revenues and higher welfare spending, USD 25 billion onincreased costs related to the crime and USD 18.1 billion onthe economic cost of deaths resulting from productcounterfeiting, among other things, it added.

The report was released at the Global Congress onCombating Counterfeiting