Philippine Software Piracy at 71%

According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the rate of software piracy in the Philippines has been stuck at 71% in the last 3 years. The recent study covers the year 2004 to 2006 with estimated US$119 million lost in licensing revenues.

Software Piracy

Though that figure is lower than before (used to be 90+%), the 71% piracy rate is still dramatically huge to ignore by the BSA. Other findings from the research revealed:

In more than half of the 102 countries studied, the piracy rate exceeded 60%. In approximately one third of the countries, the piracy rate exceeded 75%.
Emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa accounted for one-third of PC shipments, but only 10% of spending on PC software.
The European Union (EU) and Canada continue to have high losses despite low piracy rates. The EU had losses of US$11 billion with a 36% piracy rate, while Canada had losses of US$784 million with a 34% piracy rate.
Over the next four years businesses and consumers worldwide will spend US$350 billion on PC software. If current trends continue, the study predicts more than US$180 billion worth of PC software will be pirated during that period.

Likewise, the BSA also announced rewards payment of up to $1PHP 59INR 85EUR 0.95CNY 7 million which they hope might make even the most timid person don the daring cape of the whistleblower.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

12 Comments

Andrew says:

17 years ago

I know for a fact that even government agencies are also using pirated software, particularly Windows.
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Marcvill says:

17 years ago

Wow the figures are surprising. With the ‘buy genuine Windows’ campaign thing and all the raids going on, I thought the Philippines is getting better at fighting piracy.

Haynaku, kaya yung mga naka pirated na Windows Vista Ultimate dyan… na nabibili sa Greenhills… mag pirated na XP Pro na lang kayo!
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Hari Skwatir says:

17 years ago

Does this cover corporate piracy as well?

Anyway, I think one of the main reason why piracy is still rampant nowadays is the unjust over-pricing of most softwares/media. If Mr. Edu “Doods” Manzano could just find a way to beat the “pirated price” maybe that would solve everything.
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Jeffrey says:

17 years ago

In my previous company, we used 99 percent pirated software.

In my current company, we use 99 percent original software.
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minor says:

17 years ago

foss
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vance says:

17 years ago

well the cost of an original windows reach around 5k to 50k.. who can afford one?!?
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redbaks says:

17 years ago

@minor
yeah FOSS! :D

i still use winXP (pirated of course!)
i think bill gates won’t mind.
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Cheryl says:

17 years ago

Ayt! jeez… try reading the pirate bay’s reply to legal threats. Visit http://www.piratebay.com/legal

You’d be amazed how torrent pirates fight back to corporate giants and even calling them “MORONS”!

GO PIRATES!
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Technology Business Blogger says:

17 years ago

Its sad to know that even charity organizations “prioritize” helping people over keeping their offices free from pirated stuff.
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Malungkot ako. huhuhu says:

16 years ago

Ayaw po ako pagamit ng tatay ko ng GNU+Linux (spec. Ubuntu & Bayanihan) sa PC ko, kahit lang para pag-aralan ko po ito. Saan po ba makakuha ng walang-bayad na FreeBSD o OpenBSD na CD dito po sa ‘Pinas? Thanks in advance. :-(
Viva Free/OpenSource Software!
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Open Source User says:

16 years ago

I wonder how the BSA came up with figures like “71%”. Does anyone know the research methodology they used?
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Pinoy student says:

15 years ago

I don’t think we can end piracy today. Adding extreme DRM/protection measures will only make it worse and will just drive away legitimate users because of the hassle of verifying, etc. But I am hopeful to think that as technology evolves, maybe something (software or hardware) may help in stopping piracy in the future.
And even if you make prices cheap, as long as there’s a form of sharing, people will still flock to pirate since free>cheap.. even 0.01 dollar software will be pirated.

Just to share a few videos that we made on software piracy. Thanks.
Lecture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51L9xDaX1J4
Commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ4DoJr0uIA
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