The Business Software Alliance (BSA) - an interest group of the software industry - suggests that a 10 percent reduction of software piracy over four years in the Netherlands would give a strong impulse to the Dutch economy. It would create 4,000 new jobs, 2.2 billion euros of new economic activities and generate 550 million euros in tax income.

According to Jacco Brand, president of the BSA Benelux Committee, the benefits wouldn't only come to the big software companies. 82 percent would actually benefit the local economy. "That is because of the huge spin-off effect. You see a positive impact on services: more training is offered and extra hardware purchased to support the software", Brand said to Dutch newsblog Nu.nl.

To achieve this decline in software piracy, it is not so much new legislation that is needed, but rather more government support, Brand thinks. "The law against piracy in the Netherlands is sufficient, but compliance is rather lacking in the present."

Tackling piracy, is a precarious business according to Brand. "We have to constantly find a balance between what is acceptable and what is not. We don't want the be a bogeyman, and stress that we only ask the government to take legal action against notorious abusers."

Find the full report here.

UPDATE: The BSA report has been received with a lot of critique. See for instance Michael Geist's blog: "The BSA admits its estimate is based on the presumption that every dollar "saved" by using unlicenced software would now be spent on proprietary software. I termed this approach "shockingly misleading" given that I don't think anyone can credibly claim that there is a direct dollar for dollar correlation between piracy and proprietary software spending."