Piracy losses increase to $ 53 billion

In 2008, the software lost over $ 53 billion due to illegal software copying, a number that grew 11% over 2007. The analysis is from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the industry association, which shows that despite this growth in losses most countries registered a positive evolution.

Image nameAbout half of the 110 countries analyzed had a decrease in rates, while a third maintained the values ​​and another 16 countries increased the levels of illegal copies in use. The latter, however, distorted the balance and increased the global piracy rate from 38 to 41%.

According to the BSA’s analysis, the growth in the use of computers in countries like China and India, where the rate of use of illegal software is very high, with 80% and 68%, respectively, strongly contributes to this imbalance.

In an analysis by regions, Central and Eastern Europe surpasses Asia, however, with 66% of piracy when the total of Asian countries stands at 61%. Latin America follows in second place with 65%. In the group of well-behaved are the United States, with 21%, and Western Europe, with 35%.

Image name

Portugal in the 42%In Portugal, the software piracy rate continues to be above the European average, but suffered a slight decrease compared to 2007, to 42%.

Image name

The losses determined by the BSA amount to 212 million euros, a surprisingly higher amount than indicated for 2007, when the losses would amount to 167 million euros. The appreciation of the dollar may be an explanation for this difference, which also occurs in data from other countries, but not so markedly.

Image name