Impact of Software Piracy

Software piracy is a serious problem in the Asia Pacific, with 60 percent of the software installed on personal computers obtained illegally, and dollar losses due to PC software piracy amounting to US$18.7 billion. (Eighth Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study).

Software piracy also affects local software companies who are crippled by competition from pirated software and by piracy of their own products. It also has a dampening effect on the broader IT industry – an IDC study found that for every $1 of software sold in a country, there would be another $3 to $4 of additional revenues for local IT service and distribution firms.

But software piracy’s damaging impact is not confined to the software industry. In fact, software piracy has a harmful effect on the economic health of a country as a whole. It discourages entrepreneurship, prevents creation of more jobs, limits software choice, and lowers government tax revenues that can be spent on public projects.

Conversely, in a separate study commissioned by the BSA and conducted by IDC, reducing software piracy in Asia by just 10 percentage points over a four year period could generate 350,000 new jobs, almost US$41 billion in economic growth, and close to US$9 billion in tax revenues.

Everyone benefits when software piracy is reduced. Help fight software piracy.

PC Software Piracy Rates in the Asia Pacific Region

Source: Eighth Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study