According to Microsoft software piracy is on the rise worldwide and especially in the Asian 'hot spots' China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. Cause of this rise is the lack of tough penalties according to Katharine Bostick, Microsoft's senior corporate attorney:
"When you are dealing with high-end counterfeits, you are talking about organizations that have a full supply chain, a full distribution chain, full manufacturing tools all in place and it is all based on profits." |
Bostick said data from watchdog body Business Software Alliance, in which Microsoft is a member, showed that the global piracy rate rose by 1 percent to 40 percent of software products sold in 2001.
She said software companies stood to lose $11 billion in sales a year.
"Two out of five business software applications were pirated in 2001, which is the second consecutive year that the piracy rate has increased. And again, the focus on Asia is that in Asia alone, the loss (of sales) is $4.7 billion."
Too bad these piracy reports always presume that each counterfeit copy would normally have been legally bought by the user.. The country with the highest piracy rate is Vietnam with a rate of no less than 94 percent, followed by Indonesia at 88 percent.
Source: News.com
