Software pirates still making a killing, says BSA

PIRATE HUNTERS at the Business Software Alliance reckon that a third of all software installed on PCs in 2006 was illegally obtained.

The BSA therefore estimates that piracy cost the software industry nearly $40 billion over the last year.

The research, conducted by IDC, does concede that "progress was seen" in a number of emerging markets. In China, the piracy rate was reckoned to have dropped 10 per cent in three years. Piracy in Russia fell seven per cent over the same period.

BSA president and chief executive Robert Holleyman said: "The good news is that we are making progress, but we still have a lot of work to do to reduce unacceptable levels of piracy."

Estimated global losses increased in 2006 by more than $5 billion over the previous year according to the figures. The BSA likes to exaggerate the threat of piracy however, sonce its existence depends on it, so the figures should be taken with a big dollop of salt.

According to the report, pirates cost the UK economy nearly $1.7 billion in 2006, which, according to

Michala Alexander, head of anti-piracy at Microsoft UK, shows why efforts to reduce pirated software must be increased. "The negative impacts of counterfeiting and other forms of software piracy extend from the companies who wrote the software through the ecosystem of local resellers worldwide who depend on software sales, down to individual consumers. Counterfeit software can even expose consumers and businesses to spyware, viruses, faulty code and identity theft," she said.

In much of the world, buying a copy of WIndows Vista might keep the priate hunters from breaking down the doors. You might just have to forsake feeding the kids for a few months to be able to afford it, however. µ