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.
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 $1 million which they hope might make even the most timid person don the daring cape of the whistleblower.
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