PC software piracy rate here dips

How about at your place, country? Is software piracy difficult to put a tab on?

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by Esther Ng

05:55 AM May 13, 2009

FOR every $100 of personal computer software sold worldwide last year, $69 was pirated.

But in Singapore, the problem is much less severe. Following widespread public education, legislation and enforcement, the PC software piracy rate here has dipped to a new low. According to the latest BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study, the software piracy rate here dropped to 36 per cent last year from 37 per cent in 2007. It is also a marked improvement from 43 per cent in 2003.

Despite the decline in the software piracy rate here, absolute dollar losses rose to US$163 million ($238 million) last year from US$159 million in 2007, the study showed. IDC's Asia-Pacific consulting operations vice-president Victor Lim said absolute dollar "losses will increase if the rate of piracy decline is slower than the rate of software growth".

Amid the ongoing recession, Mr Lim expects companies and consumers to delay new PC purchases, a tendency that will cause the piracy rate to rise as "older computers are more likely to have unlicensed software".

Singapore's software market, including legal and pirated products, grew to US$460 million last year from US$430 million in 2007, according to the study. ESTHER NG

From TODAY – Wednesday, 13-May-2009