Software Piracy Rate FALLS to 80% in China?
Business Week has reported on the state of Software Piracy in China – and it’s not 
a pretty picture. The previous piracy rate of 90% has been cut to 80% – but understandably this “improvement” is leaving industry leaders unmoved.
Robert Holleyman of the Business Software Alliance is quoted as saying “We’re really stalled on this process.” Last week he visited the Capitol to voice the industry’s concerns.
SL.tv wonders whether Holleyman’s criticism of China could have prompted the announcement by South Korea that they intend to reduce software piracy rates to 35% by 2012. South Korea’s illegal software usage rate currently runs at 43%.
In an announcement from Seoul on March 11th Yu In-chon, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister said: “We will lower South Korea’s illegal software usage rate to 35 percent by 2012, which is the average level held by OECD member states,”
Yu said the ministry will conduct intensive research on 2,600 public companies and 1,200 private companies to examine the country’s overall software use.
So, pretty depressing figures for anyone trying to make a living from software publication.
Maybe things are better in Europe? Well yes, in parts. The software piracy rate in most of Europe runs at around 25%. With the notable exception of the South of France where EU Politics Today reports that illegal software usage rates run at nearly 50%
“The south west region of France has, far and away, the largest percentage of software piracy incidents in the EU, according to a new study.
Almost half of the software in the southwest of France is thought to be pirated. France, in general, is believed to have a 2-in-5 rate of illegal-to-legal software. In countries such as the UK and Germany, a little more than 25% of all software is pirated.
Although one could point to several reasons for the eye-opening amount of pirated software, France’s attitude toward Internet control, which has made it one of the more oppressive governments in the EU toward technology, is often cited by proud pirates as their driving force behind theft.
As CeriseClub, a French Internet company, told The Times, “The French take a sly pleasure in getting round all the systems put in place, and it’s very difficult to persuade them to do otherwise.”
Perhaps things are better in North America then? Well the picture in the USA and Canada is comparatively good actually. According to the Business Software Alliance’s Fifth Annual Global Study the USA comes in at #107 of 108 countries surveyed with a very respectable piracy rate of 20%. Canada is clearly keeping close tags on the pirates too, coming in at #91 with an illegal software usage rate of 33%.
Looking at the US software piracy rate of 20% SL.tv can quite understand why the BSA are unimpressed with the progress China are making.
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