Software piracy declining in emerging markets: BSA study

Bangalore, May 24 (UNI) Software piracy in India saw a two per cent drop to 72 per cent last year, amounting to a loss of 566 million Dollars, according to a study by Business Software Alliance (BSA) jointly with IDC.

In a release here, BSA India Committee Co-Chair Ajay Advani said the country was moving in the right direction, though slowly.

He said ''Hopefully, we will see more support from both state and federal governments to help reduce the piracy rate.'' Only then the country could witness major reduction in the piracy rate like some other Asian countries, notably China which saw a four per cent drop for the second successive year.

According to an economic impact study by the IDC, a premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the IT, telecom and consumer technology markets, published last December, if piracy rate was reduced from the current 72 per cent to 64 per cent by 2009, India would see some 115,000 new IT jobs, an additional US Dollar 5.9 billion pumped into its economy and increased tax revenues of 386 million Dollars, he added.

The study revealed 35 per cent of the packaged software installed on personal computers (PC) worldwide in 2005 was illegal, amounting to US Dollar 34 billion in global losses. However, some improvements in a number of markets indicate education, enforcement and policy efforts were beginning to pay off in emerging economies such as China, Russia and India and in Central/Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa.

''The progress made in reducing PC software piracy in several emerging markets provides some encouragement. However, much more needs to be done,'' the release said, quoting BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman. ''With more than one out of every three copies of PC software obtained illegally, piracy continues to threaten the future of software innovation, resulting in lost jobs and tax revenues,'' he added.

Piracy rates decreased moderately in more than half (51) of the 97 countries covered in this year's study, and increased in only 19.

The global rate was unchanged from 2004 to 2005 as large developed markets like the United States, Western Europe, Japan and a handful of Asian countries continue to dominate the software market while their combined piracy rate hardly moved.

BSA was the foremost organisation dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world and the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace.

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