UK piracy rate better than most
An independent global piracy report commissioned by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) from IT market research leader IDC, found that the amount of illegal or unlicensed software on PCs in Britain fell by one percent to 26 percent, the first drop in three years.
The drop is attributed to a blitz against piracy in Glasgow, a problem hot-spot. The same resources are to be targeted on Manchester over the coming weeks.
Britain was found to have among the lowest percentage of software piracy in the EU, where the average is 33 percent. Of the larger EU countries, Italy is the worst offender with 49 percent, Spain with 43 and France with 42.
Among the 108 countries studied, PC software piracy fell in 67 countries, and increased in only 8. Because the worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), the worldwide piracy rate increased by three percent to 38 percent in 2007.
BRIC shipped 61 million PCs in 2007, which nearly equalled the US market. Brazil’s piracy score was 59 percent, Russia’s was 73, India’s was 69 and China’s was 82. The lowest-piracy countries are the USA with 20 percent and Luxemburg with 21 percent.
