Piracy is on the increase in Asia
15 May 2008 | 08:12 BST
Could be worse, could be Armenia
AS MORE people get computers in Asia-pacific, the more piracy sky-rockets, according to the pirate hunters the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Quoting IDC figures, the BSA claimed that the rate of nicked software in the Asia-Pacific region increased to 59 per cent of the software in use. This is up from 55 per cent the previous year.
If it had not been for low piracy states like Australia, Japan and New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific piracy rate would be higher than 70 per cent.
China is the worst offender in terms of numbers because it is so big. As PC use has grown in the Land under Heaven so has the amount of dodgy software circulating.
BSA's members, which include Vole, Apple, McAfee, claim that they lost $14 billion to piracy last year in the region. This is up from $12 billion US dollars in 2006.
The BSA said that China's software piracy rate had fallen in three previous years but held steady at 82 per cent from 2006 to 2007.
The worst place in Asia-Pacific for piracy was Bangladesh with 92 percent, followed by Sri Lanka's 90 per cent and Vietnam's 88 per cent.
The worst place in the world was Armenia which had a 93 per cent piracy rate. Despite all the bad press about pirating students, the US had the lowest rate with 20 per cent, the BSA said. µ
© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007