Two-Fifths Of Installed Software Pirated-Survey
Click on our sponsors!
Updated 8:54 AM ET June 7, 1999
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Almost two-fifths of all new business software applications installed worldwide in 1998 were pirated, a survey by two piracy watchdogs said Monday.
The poll conducted by the Business Software Alliance and the Software & Information Industry Association showed 231 million, or 38 percent, of 615 million new business software applications installed worldwide during 1998 were pirated.
That represented an increase of 2.5 million pirated applications over 1997, the survey found.
The global software industry's piracy-related revenue losses were estimated at US$11 billion in 1998, with Vietnam posting the highest piracy rate of 97 percent, followed by China's 95 percent, and Indonesia's 92 percent.
In 1998, the Asia-Pacific region moved to second place from first in terms of monetary losses worldwide for the first time in five years. The region's losses stood at US$3 billion, down from US$3.9 billion in 1997.
North America rose to the top of the list with an estimated revenue loss of US$3.2 billion in 1998, representing 26 percent of losses worldwide.
The United States booked US$2.9 billion in losses with a piracy rate of 25 percent, while Canada recorded US$321 million in losses and a piracy rate of 40 percent.
Within Asia, China booked the highest losses due to piracy, losing US$1.2 billion. It was followed by Japan's US$597 million and Korea's US$198 million.
The piracy rate in Hong Kong fell to 59 percent last year from 67 percent in 1997, the greatest fall recorded in the region.
But the watchdogs warned that while copyright piracy in the territory had improved, more than half of all its installed software applications were still pirated.
Software firms and movie makers complain that bootleg editions are widely available in Hong Kong although a U.S. government agency in February removed the territory from its watch list for intellectual property rights abuses.
|
