Worldwide PC Software Piracy Rates Steady At 35%

According to the fourth annual global PC software piracy study conducted by IDC, 35% of the software installed in 2006 on personal computers (PCs) worldwide was obtained illegally, amounting to nearly US$40 billion in global losses due to software piracy.

Global losses increased in 2006 by more than US$5 billion (15%) over the previous year. Of the 102 countries covered in this year’s study, piracy rates dropped moderately in 62 countries, while increasing in 13. The piracy rate in China dropped by 10% on three years and in Russia, it fell by 7% over three years.

“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 Robert Holleyman, BSA president and CEO.

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According to Jeffrey Hardee, vice president and regional director for Asia, “Of the 15 individual markets examined in the Asia-Pacific region, the rate of piracy actually dropped in 11 and stayed the same in 4. Despite these results, the average piracy rate for the region increased by 1 point to 55%. This seems counter intuitive, but China’s and India’s share of the PC market in the Asia Pacific region grew from 42% in 2005 to 46% in 2006 and this has the mathematical effect of dragging the regional average upward toward the China and India average, even though the piracy rates in both countries came down in 2006.”

Hardee also noted that, despite the piracy rate reductions in most countries in the region, losses from piracy in the region increased by 44% to US$11.6 billion in 2006.

Commenting on the drop in India’s piracy, India BSA chairman Sanjay Gupta said, “A drop of 1% in the piracy level in India this year is definitely encouraging, however, the drop rate is low compared to China (4%) and Russia (3%). Hence, we need to channelise our energies in order to reduce losses due to software piracy. According to an economic impact study by the IDC, if India can reduce the piracy rate by 10% by 2009, the country will be able to add 115,000 new jobs in the IT industry and also we can expect an additional investment of US$5.9 billion into the economy, resulting in an increase in tax revenues to reach US$386 million.”