|
According to the BSA, the software piracy rate in Ireland has increased by 1 percent on last year and currently stands at 42 percent, equating to revenue losses of almost USD40 million for the Irish software industry. The piracy watchdog group said that a piracy rate of 42 percent means that almost one in every two business software programmes installed in Ireland is an illegal copy.
Moreover, the group's survey showed that piracy in Ireland was the fourth highest in Europe, coming in behind Greece (64 percent), Spain (49 percent) and Italy (45 percent), and tied with Portugal (42 percent). The BSA survey revealed that software piracy was lowest in the UK and Denmark at 25 percent and 26 percent respectively, as well as in Finland where piracy rates were as low as 27 percent.
Nevertheless, piracy rates in Western Europe as a whole increased 3 percent on last year to 37 percent, which translates into dollar losses of USD2.7 billion. The largest increases in Europe were seen in France and Germany, where piracy rates increased from 40 percent to 46 percent and 28 percent to 34 percent respectively. Western Europe has the second-lowest piracy rate globally after North America but still accounts for 25 percent of dollar losses.
The BSA's seventh annual survey on software piracy, an independent study conducted by the IPR (International Planning and Research Corporation), said that software piracy around the world was on the rise. In fact global software piracy had increased for the second year running, growing from 37 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2001. However, the BSA admitted that the worldwide dollar losses due to piracy dropped nearly one billion dollars from USD11.75 billion in 2000 to USD10.97 billion in 2001.
Yet the group said the reduction in dollar losses can be attributed to a strong US dollar as well as a decline in software prices.
"Year on year, since the BSA has been active in Ireland, the piracy rate has decreased. To see an upturn now is extremely disappointing," said Julian McMenamin, chairman of the BSA Ireland following the release of the figures. "Our reputation as a legitimate business base for global computer companies is being seriously undermined."
"With the current economic downturn, Ireland's key to remaining attractive and competitive to other countries lies in demonstrating strong IP protection. Ireland must reduce its piracy rate dramatically to bring itself below the EU average and protect its image and economic future," he added. "Intentional and careless licence abuse by Irish companies must stop now."
Other figures from the global BSA survey showed that the worst software piracy offender was Vietnam, where software piracy is down 3 percent to 94 percent. China, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia and Pakistan all showed improvement, but rates in all of these nations were higher than 80 percent.
The study evaluated sales data and market information for six major world regions and examined 26 business software applications. It was based on the reconciliation of two sets of data, the demand for new software applications and the legal supply of new software applications.
The Business Software Alliance is a global software-piracy fighting organisation, and its members include Adobe, Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates, Novell and Symantec, among others.
|
