Software piracy rate unchanged since 2007–BSA

THE software piracy rate in the Philippines stood at 69 percent last year, unchanged since 2007, according to the Asia-Pacific regional office of the Business Software Alliance.

In an interactive briefing on Tuesday, Jeff Haydee, BSA Asia-Pacific vice president, told reporters that while the Philippines’ piracy rate was stagnant, dollar losses from piracy climbed to $217 million last year from $202 million in 2008.

The official blamed this increase on more bootleg programs installed in more PCs sold in the country.

Haydee said the Asia-Pacific piracy rate stood at 59 percent while the global rate was at 43 percent.

Victor Lim, IDC president, said the piracy rate had been determined by dividing the number of deployed pirated software units by the number of software units deployed last year.

The number of pirated units sold had been determined by subtracting from the total number of software units installed, the number of legitimate software units sold.

Lim said Philippine piracy had to with more PC units being sold to consumers, who had purchased mostly white boxes, or non-branded PCs, with its assemblers installing in them bootleg programs.

He said that efforts by law enforcers in the Philippines had been concentrated on commercial users and this had prevented an increase in piracy rates.

Haydee said the BSA is asking the next Philippine President and the next Congress to update the country’s intellectual piracy laws to address software piracy by way of the Internet.

He said governments in the region should increase public education and awareness on software piracy and to lead by example by making sure that only legitimate software is used in their agencies.

The BSA is the global industry association of developers and vendors of commercial software with its head office in Washington D.C. Some of its members are Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe. –Ike Suarez, Manila Times