Pirated software is costing British industry £1.49bn a year
BSA study finds dramatic rise in pirated software
/v3-uk/news/1977020/bsa-study-dramatic-rise-pirated-software
12 May 2009, Dave Neal , V3
More than one in four software installations in the UK is illegal, according to a new report from the Business Software Alliance.
The organisation's 2008 Piracy Study (PDF) said that the amount of pirated software on PCs in the UK had risen to 27 per cent over the past year, clocking up its highest chunk of the market ever. The BSA estimates that the cost to British industry is £1.49bn.
Piracy also affects the end-user because it raises a number of security issues, and increases the risk of cyber crime, the report said.
"The recent global spread of the Conficker virus has been attributed in part to the lack of automatic security updates in unlicensed software," said the BSA.
"And in a 2006 study IDC found that 29 per cent of web sites and 61 per cent of peer-to-peer sites offering pirated software tried to infect test computers with Trojans, spyware, key-loggers and other tools of identity theft."
However, the BSA claims that it has increased the value of the punishments it metes out on behalf of its members by a factor of 25 since 2008.
"With more than one in four software installations categorised as illegal in the UK, we cannot afford to give up the fight against software piracy," said Alyna Cope, a spokesperson for the BSA UK country committee.
"Much more needs to be done by the industry and the government to warn businesses and consumers of the risks associated with under-licensed software from a legal, financial and operational point of view.
"Software piracy hurts our knowledge-based economy by weakening the very foundation on which it is built: respect for intellectual property and innovation."
The BSA is urging the government to establish a body that will focus on enforcement and education, and a code of practice that will encourage ISPs and rights holders to work together to stop piracy.
However, the BSA's suggestions were met with disappointment by Martin McNulty, client services director at the Forward Internet Group.
"The BSA's response to file sharing is at best naive and at worst dangerous, " he said. "File sharing is an enabling technology that is fast, efficient and here to stay."
Globally, the BSA found that 41 per cent of all installed PC software is pirated, and that the loss to companies is around £35bn.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
I hope the BSA burn in hell
Piracy costing the UK £1.49 billion? How much did this government who were complicit with the greedy bankers cost this country? And how was this £1.49 billion figure estimated? Did it take into account that not every single pirate software download equates to a lost sale?
America didn't recognise intellectual property for the first 100 years after it became a nation. The film industry has its roots in piracy (not paying Thomas Edison loyalties in NYC for using his projector technology inventions, and then relocating the California to avoid litigation).
The international copyright laws need a severe overhaul, as it is these stupid laws (and those profiteering from them) that are the real criminals and the real cause of innovation being stiffled and restricted. Realising that the Internet is freedom, they have started taking steps towards trying to control it! If this happens, the UK will be no better off than China (where the government controls what people can and can't look up on the Internet).
All knowledge and information should be placed in the public domain in order to better humanity as a whole! Keep the information free!!! In a way I hope the BSA keeps this hardline approach (more severe punishments etc.), as it will inevitably result in an exodus to OpenSource alternatives!!!
Posted by Scott Deagan, 12 May 2009
Pirated Software is okay
I agree, the entire copyright laws need to be re-writted to take into consideration the 21st century advances. The RIAA and the MPAA need to go to he11, what kind of company sues their customers? A stupid one thats who!
If I can attain it on the Internet free of charge, I will. I am not the person responsible for current wages not being relative to the current cost of living, if it wasn't for this BIG problem, I'd suspect a lot of people would purchase music, movies and software...I know I would but since I can't even make enough money to pay my cost of living expenses, I have to resort to getting my music, movies and software off of the Internet for free!
Posted by luvwknd, 12 May 2009
Scott Deagan is an idiot
Ah yes, about a quarter of the software in the UK is pirated while the EU files yet ANOTHER lawsuit against an American company that (this time it's intel http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217400261&cid=iwhome_art_Proce_mostpop) Basically, it's the same old story. People who want to be paid for making things that people want to use get screwed because, "Oh no!" asking for payment for work is evil!
There's plenty of free information out there. There's Linux and plenty of free apps for it. So why not use that if you advocate free software? Oh that's right. It's because you want to use the stuff that people get paid to make because sometimes you get what you pay for. So you pirate software and portray the people who actually make things as evil. What hypocritical bulls**t the "free information" movement is.
Posted by Andrew Clunn, 12 May 2009
touche!
Very well said.
Posted by James, 12 May 2009
I do, and here's why!
I presently run a fast version of XP at my home. I have all the original XP installation software, but prefer to run a version that I've downloaded. All the crud has been removed, all the annoyance of installation and activation have been removed, and ultimately, it runs quicker. So where do I stand? It's kinda like mainly listening to the downloaded album that I still have on my computer, even though I bought the CD and it's sitting in that rack over there.
Posted by LordOfRuin, 12 May 2009
Half & Half
Half my software (the stuff I really need) is paid for. The other half is "borrowed". I justify this to myself on the grounds that, while it's nice to have, if I could only get it by paying for it, I wouldn't bother. So - the developers are not losing an income that they would have got if I couldn't "borrow" it
Posted by Grunt Gruntson, 12 May 2009
Pirated software mostly unintentional
One of the main contributing factors to the rise in piracy of software, both in the UK and across the globe, is the sheer complexity of licensing schemes that CIOs currently have to deal with. Licensing schemes have become increasingly unwieldy and difficult to manage, meaning that, despite their best efforts, organisations are struggling to get a grip on their licensing software. Coupled with the fact that there is no commonality across differing vendors' schemes has made life considerably more difficult and likely brought unintentional misuse of software. Implementing a standard licensing practice, which all CIOs could get their heads round, would certainly eliminate this heightened level of complexity. The good news for organisations is that there is already a mature and professional software asset management community in place to help them address and manage licensing. Working with this community would be a step towards halting the growing software piracy problem.
Posted by Matt Fisher, 15 May 2009
If they think "Pirated" costs them money, wait until more people switch to FOSS.
I've replaced all the commercial software in my business with Free Open Source. And I'm moving my clients there too.
Once they understand that an average 20-seat Windows installation runs about $35,000 just for *licenses* (http://www.cnysupport.com/index.php/development-and-support/windows-linux-license-cost-comparison), they suddenly start looking at things differently.
Posted by Terry Carmen, 18 May 2009