The Hindu Business Line : Software piracy rate dips in 2005: Study

The Second Annual BSA (Business Software Alliance) - IDC (International Data Corporation) Global Software study on piracy has confirmed a dip in the software piracy rate, albeit by one percentage point to 35 in 2005.

This decline is said to have happened in spite of the influx of new PC users from high piracy market sectors and the rising availability of unlicensed software on the Internet P2P (pee-to-peer) file sharing sites.

While the piracy rate took a dip, its value had surged. According to the study, the global spend on commercial packaged PC software in 2004 touched over $59 billion, but the actual worth of the software installed was estimated at over $90 billion.

"This shows that for every $2 worth of purchase of legitimate software, $1 worth software was being obtained illegally," says Mr Ajay Advani, Co- Chairperson, BSA India.

For the purpose of this study, IDC has categorised 87 countries and six sub-regions into six global regions - North America, European Union, Asia-Pacific, Middle East/Africa, Rest of Europe and Latin America.

Among these, the piracy rate has been found to be lower in the Asia Pacific region, despite three of the top five pirating countries - Vietnam, China and Indonesia - are in this region. The relatively low piracy rate in Japan and Australia has offset the impact by bringing down the average.

IT spend

IDC estimates have put the business and consumer IT (PC and software) spend at more than $300 billion over the next five years and at the current piracy rate, the worth of pirated software at close to $200 billion.

"The rising or slight slip in the piracy rate is the result of a complex equation that includes education and enforcement on the one hand and on the other - new users coming into the market, easier access to pirated software / new external factors such as shifting political conditions," says Mr Advani.

The study has further revealed that in 2005, Ireland and Portugal had joined the ranks of those countries with the least piracy rate. Among the top pirating countries, Venezuela was new to the list and India, which was at the very bottom of the 2004 list, did not figure on the list but still ranked high with 74 per cent piracy.

Expressing concern over the 74 per cent piracy rate, Mr Advani said that this could be a "major inhibitor to the growth of a local packaged software industry."