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12 May 2009
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The UK piracy rate rose to 27 per cent over the past year, according to the latest joint study by IDC and the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
This equates to a loss of £1.49bn to the UK economy in 2008, which IDC claimed was the highest level ever recorded.
On a global basis, the UK was one of just 16 countries that saw its piracy rate increase, but 57 countries saw their rate actually decrease and 36 per cent saw their rate stay the same.
Further reading
The global piracy rate grew to 41 per cent in 2008, compared with 38 per cent in 2007, with the total loss to piracy increasing 11 per cent to $53bn.
In Europe, the highest piracy countries included Georgia (95 per cent), Armenia (92 per cent) and Azerbaijan (90 per cent). The lowest rates included Luxembourg (21 per cent) and Austria (24 per cent).
The US had the lowest piracy rate globally at 21 per cent, but incurred the highest losses due to the sheer size of the market, IDC claimed.
Alyna Cope, a representative for the BSA UK country committee, said: “With one in four software installations categorised as illegal in the UK, we cannot afford to give up the fight against software piracy.
“Much more needs to be done by the industry and government to warn businesses and consumers of the risks associated with under-licensed software. The government must also warn businesses and consumers of the risks associated with under-licensed software from a legal, financial and operational point of view,” said Cope.
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Piracy actually equals an opportunity for the channel
One of the main contributing factors to the rise in piracy of software, both in the UK and across the globe, is the sheer complexity of licensing schemes that CIOs currently have to deal with.
Licensing schemes have become increasingly unwieldy and difficult to manage, meaning that, despite their best efforts, organisations are struggling to get a grip on their licensing software. Coupled with the fact that there is no commonality across differing vendors' schemes has made life considerably more difficult and likely brought unintentional misuse of software.
This presents a great opportunity for channel partners, asiImplementing a standard licensing practice, which all CIOs could get their heads round, would certainly eliminate this heightened level of complexity, bring increased revenue and possibly halt the growing software piracy problem.
Posted by Matt Fisher, FrontRange | 15 May 2009
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