Pirated software’s are hurting software industry, software partners and environment partners. Pirated software’s are now reach from home users to corporate users. A new white paper on the piracy phenomenon authored by market analysis company IDC and sponsored by Microsoft and the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners identifies no less than nine reasons which fuel software piracy.

Pirated software’s can be installed using peer-to-peer file sharing, black market via bootlegged media or Installed as genuine solutions. Pirated software’s are often cheaper then genuine software. Complex licensing is also a big factor for pirated software’s.

Here are the nine reasons as outlined by IDC for Microsoft:

1. As a deliberate attempt to save money

2. The pirated software came bundled with the hardware

3. Cash flow issues… the customer has the money, just not today

4. Procurement policies that burden IT staff. Who then use demo products to solve immediate IT needs

5. Company operations that grow faster than procurement increases legitimate licenses

6. An initial solution that has pirated software bundled into it, and when the company goes to upgrade it can’t afford the sudden cost to become legal

7. A master license agreement that is negotiated elsewhere in the company than where the software is used - confusion between implementers and procurement

8. Easily available demo or trial software that ends up deployed as production software; the vendor may never follow up

9. Vendor licensing programs that are too complex, users just give up.

Technorati Tags: Software Piracy

A research conducted by the Business Software Alliance revealed that Armenia has the highest piracy rate of all the countries in the world with no less than 93 points in 2007 and 95 in 2006. USA [Updated] is followed by Bangladesh and Azerbaijan, with 92 points each. According to findings published by BSA, the global piracy rate is now at only 38 percent, but the total PC software losses almost reached $48 billion.

We are making much-needed progress in the battle against PC software piracy, and that’s good news for governments, end users, businesses, and the industry," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman. "The battleground is now shifting, however, to emerging markets where many of our collective challenges remain.

If you’re curious which the countries with the lowest piracy rates are, find out that the United States leads the chart with 20 %, being followed by Luxembourg and New Zealand with 21 % and 22 % respectively. It’s interesting to note that most countries with low piracy rates come from Western Europe, including here Austria (25 %), Belgium (25 %), Finland (25 %), Switzerland (25 %) and Sweden (25 %). Moreover, the losses recorded in these countries are also pretty low compared with the ones brought by other countries such as Russia (more than $4 billion) and China (more than $6 billion). For instance, Luxembourg, which has a piracy rate of 21 %, recorded losses of only $16 million.

By the end of 2007, there were more than 1 billion PCs installed around the world, and close half had pirated, unlicensed software on them,

said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

The study shows that government and industry anti-piracy efforts are working in many countries, however, their attention will increasingly turn to combating piracy in emerging economies.

Source : Softpedia