Software piracy on the rise, says BSA

The use of illegal software by businesses around the globe rose for the second consecutive year in 2001, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

According to the BSA's seventh annual survey, 40 per cent of business software installed last year was pirated - up from 37 per cent in 2000. The latest rise marks the first time that rate has risen two years in a row.

In a bittersweet pill for the software industry, the financial damage from the rise in pirate software in 2001 was nearly one billion dollars less than in 2000. Last year's losses were estimated to be $10.97bn down from $11.75bn the year before. That fall was the result of a steady decline in the value of much of the software as well as the downturn in IT spending.

In the BSA study, eastern Europe was found to have the highest piracy rates, while Vietnam was the worst offending country with an estimated piracy rate of 94 per cent. Despite lower piracy rates, north America, Asia/Pacific and western Europe once again accounted for the bulk of the lost revenues comprising 85 per cent of global losses.

North America continued to be the region with the lowest piracy rate - at 26 per cent - but even that was up one percentage point from 2000. Total losses due to software piracy in the US were more than $1.8bn, down from $2.6bn in 2000.

Meanwhile, western Europe continued to be the region with the second lowest piracy rate - at 37 per cent - but it experienced the second highest dollar losses totalling nearly $2.7bn, accounting for 24 per cent of the total global losses due to software piracy.

According to the BSA, the majority of offenders tend to be small and mid-sized businesses that look for cheap or free software to run their computer operations.