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One-Third of Business Software Is Pirated

by Terrence O'Brien on May 15, 2007 at 03:51 PM

Business Software AllianceThe Business Software Alliance, a group funded by vendors, released its fifth annual global software piracy study. The group found that 35% -- about one-third -- of all software used by businesses was pirated, costing software companies almost $40 billion.

While China still figures highly in business software piracy rates (about 82 percent), that country has made inroads, reducing piracy by about ten percent in the last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe have surprisingly high and unchanged rates of pirated software in businesses, about 22 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

Software groups and governments alike have tried numerous anti-piracy measures, most aimed at preventing illegal copies, or shutting them down once they've been distributed.

One thing most have not tried is selling a quality product at a reasonable price. Why can't we all just switch to Open Office or Ubuntu?


From IT Wire, BBC, and Newsvine

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Tags: piracy, software

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