BSA study: Software piracy level dropped to 65% in Romania in 2009

The software piracy level for PCs dropped by 1% in Romania last year, from 66% in 2008 to 65% in 2009, while almost 50%. Half of the 111 countries entered in the study recorded drops in the piracy level and 17% of them have seen an increase in the trend. . The losses of the industry caused by software piracy dropped to 183 million dollars in 2009, a study Business Software Alliance carried out in partnership with IDC.

BSA calculates that the software piracy rate for Romania shows 65% in 2009, against 72% in 2005. The losses piracy brings to the industry have dropped from 249 million dollars in 2008 to 183 million dollars last year. . The losses in 2005 amounted to 11 million dollars and they’ve increasingly gown until last year, when there was a nearly 25% drop.

What’s more interesting is that on a global scale, the software piracy rate went up to 43% in 2009, against 41% in 2008, although half of the countries featured in the study saw a downshifting trend. Nevertheless, the growth in software piracy is caused by emergent markets, like Russia, India and Brazil, where PCs sell well.

BSA data indicate that the highest software piracy rates recoded last year were in Georgia (95%), Zimbabwe (92%), Bangladesh and Moldova (91%) and Armenia and Yemen (90%). At the other pole, the US records the lowest level (20%), while Japan. Luxembourg, New Zeeland, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland all score below 25%.

According to BSA, the worth of the pirated software amounted to 51.4 billion dollars, similar to 2008. The highest amonts were in the US and China, with damages over 8 and 7 million dollars, respectively. Other five countries have pirated worth of more two billion dollars each: Russia, France, Brazil, Germany and India.

BSA claims that for every licensed soft worth 100 dollars sold in 2009 on the market, there was hacked software worth 75 dollars. The surveying body adds that the recession could reach to an even worse situation and sees the piracy level increase on a global scale as worrying.

The data represent the conclusions of the seventh annual study carried out on an international scale, addressing PC software piracy. Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the world’s software industry, published the study on Tuesday, May 11.