RSSReport: Piracy Software Loses Continue to Rise
By Ed Oswald | Published May 15, 2007, 12:41 PM
While the rate of piracy worldwide has stayed fairly stable, the cost of the problem to software developers continues to rise as the market continues to grow, the Business Software Alliance said on Tuesday.
An IDC study commissioned by the BSA found that for every $2 spent on legitimate software, a dollar is lost to piracy. Worldwide, around 35 percent of all software is pirated.
"The good news is we are making progress, however, we still have a lot of work to do to reduce unacceptable levels of piracy," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.
Global losses amounted to $40 billion in 2006, up 15 percent from the previous year. Some good news could be culled from the study: piracy rates dropped moderately in 62 countries, while increasing in only 13.
Progress was noted in places like China, whose piracy rates continued to drop. In 2006, 82 percent of software was pirated, down 10 points in three years. This amounted to an additional $864 million in revenue, the BSA said.
"This continued decline in China's software piracy rate is quite promising," Holleyman said. "BSA is encouraged by the commitment from the Chinese government to ensure legal software use.
Another problem area, Russia, also saw declines in the amount of pirated software during the same period, falling seven points to 87 percent in 2006.
Of all countries studied, the US had the lowest rate of piracy, yet the highest total losses at $7.3 billion. It was followed by China with losses of $5.4 billion, and France with $2.7 billion.
Oh, cry me a river Bsa.
Yet more nonsensical, entirely hypothetical numbers about how much money they supposedly lost.
The methods they use to make up these numbers are very dubious and highly questionable.
Bsa Questionnaire for Piracy Assessment
Please fill out the following questionnaire to help us assess the amount of piracy. Rest assured that all answers will be treated completely anonymously.
1a. Do you own a copy of MS Windows?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
1b. If yes, how did you acquire it?
[ ] bought [ ] plundered shop [ ] inherited from Grandpa [ ] stolen from Bill's private collection [ ] hacked MS' servers [ ] found on dead person
1c. If you found it on a dead person, did you kill the person in question to get their copy?
[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Not sure
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|1a. Do you own a copy of MS Windows?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
That's pretty much it, right there.
If you answer no to that but own a computer, they chalk it up as a lost sale for MS, and obviously due to piracy...
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|Ed, does anyone proof your article? as noted below, loses is not the same as losses. with that said, if piracy is such a problem, why not have more control over production of disks and keys? as far as I can tell, there is not much control of software keys that are authenticated/activated. If microsoft, and other software distributors deactivated the leaked keys and had more presence in those dirty places people get software without purchasing, identify the products and made more of an effort, I think a kid making 45k a yr browsing for this stuff would be money better spent than corporate lawyers suing end users.
As far as music and movies go, they are at a crossroads and instead of suing users, they need to identify needs of their target audience and provide them with a product they want and are willing to purchase. They also need a way of identifying products like stamps on food bags to identify where it was produced. if a product shows up in downloads, well, they need to find out where it leaked and stop that source instead of suing end users. perhaps if major production of the music/movies were kept in the US/ or originating country, there would be less piracy... IMO
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|well the losses are up, but the profit's up as well.
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|I bet everytime someone downloads openoffice, they list it as a "loss of sale" for microsoft *yawn*
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|Actually, the BSA pretty much does exactly that. It's amazing anyone still takes them seriously / reports on their 'findings' with any sense of seriousness at all.
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|I don't condone software piracy but I see BSA in the same light as I see RIAA & MPAA (... and sometimes AAPL. lol).
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|For having the lowest rate, does anyone else think that the draconian measures dropped on paying customers here is generally overstepping normal consumer relationships?
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|wouldnt that make it 50% if its 1:2?
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|No. Or at least I think my maths is correct when I say no.
1+2=3 therefore 1:2 = 1/3 and 2/3 respectively.
Which equates to 33% and 66%
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|oh right i wasnt looking at it right.
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|They forgot to mention that only about 1% of that 35% would have actually bought their crap if it wasn't free.
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|The headline should read: "Losses," not Loses.
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|Actually it should read "projected losses assuming every pirated copy would have converted to a sale had piracy not been an option". :D
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|you know what you do when you assume.......
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|Had piracy not been an "option", the only other option for them to attain that content would have been through a sale.
Anyone can *say* they wouldn't have bought it. The fact remains that they posses it, which, without the "option", that would have required a purchase.
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|if piracy hadn't been an option, i wouldn't have to type with this damn hook! arrgggghh!
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|roflmao.
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|That's true, but they are basically saying that they have *lost* money. They haven't. They have simply not earned money that they are legally entitled to. The two are not equivalent.
More importantly they are basing their "loss" numbers on the assumption that every piracy equals a lost purchase, which is patently false. My point then was that if piracy were not a possibility a large percentage of those people using pirated copies of things simply wouldn't be using them at all. Thus *either way* there is no revenue and so clearly it is not *lost* revenue, simply potential revenue that is never capitalized, whether because of piracy or the inability of the customer to pay.
Counting losses this way is nearly the same as saying you're losing tons of money to poverty because people are too poor to buy your product. :p
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