Software piracy not coming down: survey

Pakistan ranked 15th in highest piracy rate.

KARACHI:

The piracy rate in Pakistan has remained static while it has been steadily going down in almost all other countries, according to the annual global software piracy survey conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

India and China also witnessed a downtrend, though their software piracy rate was much higher.

BSA, an international association of software producers, announced that 84 per cent of all software on personal computers in Pakistan was unlicensed and that software piracy remained constant between 2009 and 2010.

The most common way people in developing economies engage in software piracy is to buy a single legal copy of a programme and then install it on multiple computers. This year’s survey also found that one per cent of business decision-makers in developing markets believed that this is a legal practice.

The commercial value of illegal software in Pakistan has increased by 31 per cent to its highest level since 2006. Pakistan has been ranked 15th amongst countries with the highest piracy rate.

Pakistan was not in the list of economies with the highest commercial value of pirated software in 2010, however, regional countries figured high amongst them. China was at number two with its pirated software valued at $7,779 million and India was ranked fourth with its unlicensed software estimated to be worth $2,739 million. These two were vying for the top four spots with US and Russia, which were ranked first and third respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.