NDLI: Factors that influence software piracy

Please wait, while we are loading the content...

Factors that influence software piracy

Content Provider	ACM Digital Library
Author	Peltier, James W. Nill, Alexander Schibrowsky, John
Abstract	Introduction In their sixth annual piracy study, The Business Software Alliance (BSA) provided compelling evidence that software piracy continues to be a global problem. The BSA estimates that approximately 41% of all PC software worldwide was acquired illegally in 2008 (from 38% in 2007), totalling over \$53 billion in lost revenues. Although the overall global piracy rate remains relatively stable, the growing worldwide use of PC's has contributed to a 84% increase in piracy losses since 2003 (see Figure 1), a number that is expected to continue to rise in the future. Without question, software piracy has clear and negative economic consequences for manufacturers and distributors striving to compete in a competitive global market space. In addition to lost revenues attributed to software piracy, it is estimated that a 10% reduction in piracy rates would result in more than 2.4 million jobs globally and an additional \$70 billion in taxes. Over the next four years, a reduction in global piracy by a mere one point a year would increase industry revenues by \$20 billion. Software piracy is thus jeopardizing the future growth and development of the IT industry, which in turn disproportionately impacts countries with the highest piracy rates. Much of the popular press and academic attention has focused on the high piracy rates in developing countries such as China (80%), Russia (68%), Vietnam (85%), and others. Unfortunately, as with the multitude of legal, political and sociological problems that developing countries face, solutions for controlling pirated software installations are likely years away. In contrast, the largest dollar losses due to software piracy are in developed countries with high PC usage such as the U.S. (\$7.6 billion), France (\$2.6 billion) and Germany (\$2.2 billion). As a consequence, lowering piracy rates by even a few percentage points in these mega-economies would have a large and positive economic impact. This study focuses on a comprehensive set of potential determinants of illegal software installations among mid-level business managers in Germany and is important for four reasons. First, Germany suffers from a significant software piracy problem and is ranked seventh globally in terms of dollar losses. Second, mid-level business managers constitute one of the largest markets for software and a better understanding of this software segment has important strategic ramifications for designing piracy policies and communications. Third, Germany's piracy rate at 27% is dramatically lower than the 33% averaged by European Union countries and is one of the few developed countries that has produced a substantial reduction in losses due to pirated software. Specifically, software piracy losses in Germany fell from \$2.3 billion in 2003 to \$1.64 billion in 2006, a drop of 28%. Although the total dollar amount has increased in 2008 due to inflation, the piracy rate is dropping and remains low compared to other countries. Lastly, although piracy rates and loss revenues are high in rapidly developing countries such as China (\$6.7 billion) and Russia (\$4.2 billion, they have shown dramatic improvements from 2003--2008. A better understanding of the factors that curtail software piracy in low piracy rate countries like Germany may help to further reduce the rates in countries with improving infrastructures and economies.
Starting Page	131
Ending Page	134
Page Count	4
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00010782 15577317
DOI	10.1145/1743546.1743581
Journal	Communications of the ACM (CACM)
Volume Number	53
Issue Number	6
Language	English
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publisher Date	2005-08-01
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Computer Science Computer Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Preventing Software Piracy

Software piracy

Hardware protection against software piracy

Intellectual Property and Software Piracy

Global software piracy revisited

International software piracy

Combatting Software Piracy by Encryption and Key Management

Global software piracy (CACM, Vol. 43, Issue. 9)

Global software piracy (CACM, Vol. 49, Issue. 6)

Factors that influence software piracy

Similar Documents

Preventing Software Piracy

Software piracy

Hardware protection against software piracy

Intellectual Property and Software Piracy

Global software piracy revisited

International software piracy

Combatting Software Piracy by Encryption and Key Management

Global software piracy (CACM, Vol. 43, Issue. 9)

Global software piracy (CACM, Vol. 49, Issue. 6)

Factors that influence software piracy