The Hindu Business Line : `Piracy tad lower in emerging markets'

The IT industry, which is battling software piracy, can have a sigh of relief. The global piracy rate, though rising, witnessed a modest abatement in emerging markets including India. Piracy rates decreased in more than half (51) of the 97 countries covered in this year's study, and increased in only 19. The global rate, however, remained unchanged from 2004 to 2005 as large developed markets such as United States, Western Europe, Japan and a few Asian countries continue to dominate the software market while their combined piracy rate hardly moved.

Russia, India and China saw a decline in piracy rates with India witnessing a two-point drop to 72 per cent and estimated losses at $566 million. Russia saw a four-point drop while China, with one of the fastest growing IT markets in the world, dropped four points between 2004 and 2005.

These findings, from an annual global study of PC software piracy by IDC, were released recently by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the international association of leading software developers.

"This year marks the second year in a row where there has been a decrease in the software piracy rate in China. This is particularly significant, considering the vast PC growth taking place in the Chinese IT market," said BSA President and CEO Mr Robert Holleyman.

Thirty-five per cent of the packaged software installed on personal computers worldwide in 2005 was illegal, amounting to $34 billion in global losses. However, some improvements in a number of markets indicate education, enforcement and policy efforts are beginning to pay off in emerging economies such as China, Russia and India and in Central/Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa.

Much more to be done

Mr Holleyman said though the reduction in piracy rate in some Asian countries was encouraging, much more was still needed. He said "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".

Mr Jeffrey Hardee, Vice President and Regional Director for Asia, said "the reason for the rise in the average rate for the Asian region lies in the growth of the PC markets in China and India, which grew from a combined 27 per cent of the Asia Pacific market in 2004 to 29 per cent in 2005 ."