41% Of All PC Software Is Pirated
May 12th, 2009 • Featured, Software
A fresh report, released today by the BSA, details how 41% of all installed PC software worldwide was pirated in 2008, 3% more than in 2007.
The study, which included 110 countries, interestingly found that the piracy rate in over half (51.8%) of the countries actually dropped when compared to a year before. In fact – only 14.5% of the countries displayed an increase in the piracy rate. So where does the 3% jump occur? Simple – Computer shipments to High-piracy countries, specifically both China and India, grew faster than other countries involved in the study. This meant the reduction in piracy elsewhere was easily overpowered.
The study also found that losses jumped over $50 billion for the first time in history. I’m assuming that this is based on the assumption that every illegal copy would’ve been bought, which isn’t entirely realistic. 20 million illegal downloads doesn’t mean 20 million sales, as many users just simply wouldn’t have bought the software whether a cracked copy was available or not. Either way, it’s still an incredibly large loss in revenue each year.
Ironically, the US makes up the largest amount of revenue lost ($9.1 Billion), despite having the lowest piracy rate in the world (20%), thanks to having the largest PC software demand in the world. The study also found that despite the piracy rate hovering around 20%, losses have grown larger and larger with each year.
The full report by the BSA, and conducted by the IDC is available here.
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Oh boy, where do I begin with this one? There is just so much to say.
I know that no matter what, the corporate world is happy about this. Software is about one of the only industries that isn’t taking a huge hit from this economy where their main problems are consumer wallets and not their budgets and means.
They like piracy (not just software, all mediums) -> gets legislation made with pressure of ‘lost money’ -> tighter property laws -> digital distribution pushed -> games, music, movies are no longer a product you buy -> Games, music, movies, books (kindle) become Services.
And what is a service good for? Control. Jack Thompson really can’t say anything about GTA. But if Digital Distribution takes over (it will, costs too much to make and ship products that can be downloaded for a lower price and still produce a larger profit that stays in the industry, not going out to other parts of the infrastructure) and the guys that are shadow-developing OnLive for MicroSoft (I said it hear first
) happen to agree with the views old Jack used to throw around, then you face the problem of the private-company exercising their right to limit the service in any way they see fit – including keeping it a ‘family friendly’ service. There can be parent controls, stopping GTA was never about what Jack said it was, and he knows it. So much more can be said, there are so many examples of this part of the staging of history.
Good read and interesting statistic to take in, thanks Mike.