Unlicensed software brought $53 billion in losses to tech companies

According to the figures furnished by the Business Software Alliance on Tuesday losses from software piracy were estimated at $53 billion for companies in 2008 with illegal applications accounting for 41% of all the PC software. The piracy rose from 38% in 2007 to the given percentage worldwide in spite of successful fighting it in China and Russia.

Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the BSA, said that although there was some progress on piracy in some countries, with rates down in roughly half of the countries surveyed and flat in one-third, overall "the dollar figure is actually up”. With the US piracy standing for 20% of the total market, which is the lowest in the world, it was a major problem because more software was sold in the United States.

According to Holleyman much of the losses came from small businesses who use unlicensed copies of the popular applications. While they might have about 50 PCs they paid only for the software licenses half of that number. 

Meantime the rate of the piracy in China decreased from 90% in 2004 to 80% last year with Russia’s piracy down 5% to 68% in 2008. The decline in China is ascribed to the government’s policy to use only legitimate software. The study found that Chinese ISPs took measures to cut pirates off the web and other measures were also taken to prevent software smuggling.

The study found seven countries with piracy rates of 90 percent or higher: Georgia, Bangladesh, Armenia, Zimbabwe, Sri Landa, Azerbaijan and Moldova.