By Nick Heath, 13 May 2009 11:35
NEWS
Software companies lost £1.49bn to piracy in the UK last year - and that's before the impact of the economic downturn.
More than a quarter of the desktop software installed in the UK last year - 27 per cent - was pirated according to the sixth annual global IDC software piracy study, sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents the interests of software makers including Apple, IBM and Microsoft.
BSA UK committee member, Julie Strawson, said that most of this unlicensed software was business-orientated and called for executives to stamp out the widespread belief this was acceptable practice.
"I contact customers on licensing and go away with the message 'Why should we bother, there is nothing out there stopping us doing this, unless you sue me and take me to court'. That is what we are up against," she said.
"What is missing at board level is a feeling that software should be managed as rigorously as human resources or any other part of the business."
The BSA said it has stepped up efforts to fight unlicensed software, with the value of legal settlements achieved by the BSA on the behalf of its members in 2009 up 25 times on the same period last year.
Globally the rate of piracy also increased from 38 to 41 per cent, with losses at $53bn, largely because of the fast-growing software markets in countries with high rates of piracy such as China and Brazil.
In Egypt authorities have taken drastic measures to stamp out piracy, legalising all pirated software held by universities and government departments in exchange for a payout and an assurance that licences will be purchased in future.
The UK is relatively low down the international piracy rankings, with the 13th lowest piracy rate in the world.
The US has both the lowest amount of piracy, 20 per cent of all software installed last year, and the highest rates of losses, $9bn, because of the large size of the software market in the US.
Marcel Warmerdam, of the IDC, said piracy rate in the UK had hovered around 27 per cent for years, adding that, so far, the global downturn has had little impact - but he expects it to drive up piracy this year.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Ah, the same twisted and distorted figures from people that are, to a large part, architects of the problem.
So when the vendors simplify their licensing schemes, make it easy for end users to manage them, etc, etc, ... then they might have grounds for complaint.
Just don't even get me started on questions of "value for money", or a discussion on whether "pirate copy=lost sale" is a valid way to calculate losses !
2. Nick Cole
A very one-sided and unsubstantiated claim from those who have the most to lose, or do they really?
It is used as an excuse to impose user impacting intrusive surveillance and monitoring techniques.
3. anonymous
"Software companies lost £1.49bn to piracy in the UK last year "
based on what? Are they saying that every copy "pirate" copy installed has resulted in a lost sale? Ana at full price? Where did they get the number of software packages "stolen" from?
They have an interest to make the numbers look as high as normal, to make their case to the powers that be, to crack down on all this illegal activity!
4. Matt Fisher
One of the main contributing factors to the rise in piracy of software, both in the UK and across the globe, is the sheer complexity of licensing schemes that CIOs currently have to deal with. Licensing schemes have become increasingly unwieldy and difficult to manage, meaning that, despite their best efforts, organisations are struggling to get a grip on their licensing software. Coupled with the fact that there is no commonality across differing vendors’ schemes has made life considerably more difficult and likely brought unintentional misuse of software. Implementing a standard licensing practice, which all CIOs could get their heads round, would certainly eliminate this heightened level of complexity. The good news for organisations is that there is already a mature and professional software asset management community in place to help them address and manage licensing. Working with this community would be a step towards halting the growing software piracy problem.