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Software piracy increased last year in the
Asia-Pacific region, boosted by China's growing use of personal
computers, an industry group said on Wednesday.
The Asia-Pacific's average PC
software piracy rate in 2007 increased to 59 percent of the software
in use in the region from 55 percent the previous year, said the
Business Software Alliance (BSA), which works to fight piracy.
The increase was largely because
of China's growing share of the region's overall PC market, it said.
Losses from software piracy in
the region rose to more than 14 billion US dollars in 2007 from
almost 12 billion dollars in 2006, BSA said as it released a global
study of the problem.
BSA's members include Microsoft,
Apple, McAfee and other major industry players.
It says piracy includes illegal
manufacture, the retail sale of pirated software, unauthorised
downloading or uploading, and use of unlicensed software by
businesses.
Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's vice
president and regional director, said the Asia-Pacific market for PC
software is growing rapidly as incomes rise in emerging economies.
The high growth rate for PC sales
in countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, which have
large populations, is resulting in a higher loss from piracy
compared with mature markets, he said.
China's software piracy rate had
fallen in three previous years but held steady at 82 percent from
2006 to 2007 as PC shipments to homes and small businesses grew
rapidly, BSA said.
Excluding Australia, Japan and
New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific piracy rate would be higher than 70
percent, it said.
Expanding usage of the Internet
in the region could also worsen piracy through illegal downloading
of software and unauthorised sharing of files, Hardee said.
Bangladesh had the highest Asian
piracy rate in 2007, at 92 percent, followed by Sri Lanka's 90
percent, BSA said. Vietnam was third-highest with 88 percent.
Armenia's 93 percent piracy rate
was the highest in the world and the United States had the lowest
rate at 20 percent, BSA said.
Global research group IDC
conducted the study of 108 countries, BSA added.
-- AFP
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