Software Piracy Down Marginally in the US and Up in Canada

According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) study released this month 2002 US Software State Piracy Study, in percentage terms, the average software piracy rate in the US dropped from 25.1% in 2001 to 22.8% in 2002.   The study used market research data on the amount of software installed on PCs across various market segments.   Given the number of new and replacement PCs supplied into the market, the total amount of software installed was estimated.   Pirated software was estimated as the difference between total software installed and software legally shipped in the US.   Estimated retail losses due to piracy in the US rose from $1.81 billion in 2001 to $1.96 billion in 2002. The BSA released its Global Software Piracy Study, Trends in Software Piracy 1994-2002 in June 2003, which showed substantially different rates of piracy in Canada, where the rate is up from 38% in 2001 to 39% in 2002.   By way of contrast, the study estimated that 92% of all software in China is pirated! In terms of attitudes to piracy, the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) released the Executive Summary of a Decima Survey showing that Canadians feel software piracy is a less serious offence than stealing towels from a hotel, or taking home office supplies from an employer's place of business. For the Business Software Alliance US Software State Piracy Study for 2002, visit: http://global.bsa.org/globalstudy/2003_SPS.pdf. For the BSA Global Software Piracy Study, Trends in Software Piracy 1994-2002, see: http://global.bsa.org/globalstudy/2003_GSPS.pdf. The Executive Summary of the 2002 Decima Survey of Canadian attitudes to software piracy can be found at: http://www.caast.org/resources/executive_summary.pdf. Summary by:   Nicholas J. Whalen