Study finds software piracy rife in Australia
Study finds software piracy rife in Australia
Nearly a third of the software installed on computers in Australia last year was a pirated copy, representing a loss of AU$475m, according to the findings of a global software piracy study conducted on behalf of the Business Software Alliance, the international association of software manufacturers.
Conducted by technology research firm IDC, this year’s study incorporated major software market segments including operating systems, consumer software and local market software, whereas in previous years, the study was limited to business software applications. This year's study also accounts for software such as shareware or software developed by the open source community, painting a broader, more accurate picture of the global software piracy problem.
The study found that while US$80 billion dollars in software was installed on computers worldwide last year, only US$51 billion was legally purchased. This equates to 36 percent of all software installed on computers worldwide being pirated.
Australia’s 31 percent piracy rate in 2003 compares with an estimated 32 percent in 2002. Despite the one percent drop, Australia has continued to fall behind its economic peers, with the US piracy rate at 22 percent, New Zealand at 23 percent and the UK at 29 percent. Australia is ranked sixteenth on the global software piracy tables for total software piracy losses.
"Software piracy continues to be a major challenge for Australia, just as it is for economies worldwide," said Jim Macnamara, chairman of the Australian division of the BSA. "Piracy is a disadvantage in any country – governments lose tax revenue, it costs jobs throughout the technology supply chain and it inhibits the local software industry."
The total Australian software piracy losses of AU$487m detailed in the IDC study show a marked increase in the monetary loss compared to The Cost of Counterfeiting Study (2003), conducted in Australia by the Allen Consulting Group, which found that losses due to counterfeiting was AU$446m.
“The increasing availability of pirated software via spam, P2P file-sharing sites and mail-order or auction sites, will potentially drive the piracy higher in the future,” said Macnamara. “The extraordinary increase during May of spam selling illegal software shows that Internet piracy is a growing area and it’s one of great concern for the BSAA.”
“Piracy continues to be a significant problem through Asia Pacific, as evidenced by the region’s representation among the world’s piracy leaders,” added Martin Kralik, senior research manager for Asia Pacific consulting at IDC. “Unfortunately, this same piracy is also hurting the region’s competitiveness. The revenues that are lost to piracy are vital to the success and survival of smaller, local software developers and that ultimately undermines the region’s ability to develop new products and compete in the global market.”
Regional breakdown
The piracy rate in the Asia/Pacific region was 53 percent, with dollar losses totaling more than $7.5 billion.
In Eastern Europe, the piracy rate was 70 percent, with dollar losses at more than $2.2 billion.
In Western Europe, the rate was 36 percent, and dollar losses totaled $9.6 billion.
The average rate across Latin American countries was 63 percent, with losses totaling nearly $1.3 billion.
In the Middle Eastern and African countries, the rate was 55 percent on average, with losses totaling nearly $900 million.
In North America, the piracy rate was 23 percent. The losses totaled more than $7.2 billion.
“The fight for strong intellectual property protection and respect for copyrighted works spans the globe, and there is much work to be done,” said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of BSA.
“BSA will continue to work with governments to enact policies to protect software intellectual property as well as implement programs to raise business and consumer awareness about the importance of copyright protection for creative works. Lowering the piracy rate will stimulate local economic activity, generate government revenue, create job growth and cultivate future innovation,” he added.
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