Robert Holleyman is President and CEO of the Business Software Alliance

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) today released its fifth annual Global
Software Piracy Report, and it contains both good news and bad news about the
use of unlicensed, illegal personal computer (PC) software. 

The good news is that years of crime-fighting efforts by government, law
enforcement, and industry are paying off in reduced piracy rates in nearly
two-thirds of the 108 countries studied. 

The bad news is that the worldwide piracy rate went up three
percentage points from 2006 to 2007, to 38%, driven by the rapid spread of PCs
in emerging economies with high software piracy rates. And the dollar losses are
staggering:  up $8 billion from last year to nearly $48 billion in global
losses. 

While the United States' piracy rate is the lowest in the world at 20%, the
size of its market means that dollar losses are the largest for any one country,
exceeding $8 billion.

Why does this matter? As is the case with copyright violations generally,
software piracy affects millions of ordinary people. It reduces high tech job
creation and innovation; harms small and medium-sized service providers; lowers
government tax revenues; and increases the risk of cyber security problems. 

The brightest spot on the map confirms the ingredients of progress.  Russia
has seen a one-year piracy reduction of seven points to 73%, and a five-year
drop of 14 points. Russia's piracy rate is still high, but it is falling rapidly
as a result of sustained government engagement, enforcement, industry
legalization programs, user education, and a much improved economy. 

Still, more than half of the one billion PCs in use around the world in 2007
had pirated software on them.  A decade from now, the number of PCs in use is
likely to be much, much higher, and that's a good thing.  But if we are to
prevent software piracy from rising at the same pace, we must continue to
marshal the forces of business and government to fight piracy at home while
taking the fight to new fronts.

Robert Holleyman is President and CEO of the Business Software
Alliance, which sponsors the IDC Global Software Piracy Study. The study is
posted online at www.bsa.org/2008global study. 

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