Software piracy on the rise

The amount of pirated software is increasing worldwide. This is mainly due to more people using computers in emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil. Globally, in 2009, 43% of software in use were illegal copies.

This is revealed by a study by the Business Software Alliance. The fraction of illegal software is steadily increasing, the BSA reports. In 2008, it was 41% and in 2007, 38%. The use of illegal software represents a value of around 40 billion euro.

Although pirated software is on the rise, the BSA was happy with its results of countering the pirate threat. The economic recession did not lead to an expected spike in the use of pirated software and in most countries the fraction of illegal software declined rather than increased. In the Netherlands, around 28% of software is acquired from an illegal source, a figure that has remained steady. The value of this fraction declined with 8% over the last year to 408 million euro.

The emerging BRIC-countries at the moment represent the largest growth in IT use, accompanied with a large fraction of pirated software. China is in the lead with 79% of software coming from an illegal copy. India follows with 65% and Brazil with a comparatively modest 56%.

11 May 2010