UK Software piracy has dropped for the first time in three years according to IDC's latest global piracy study.

Conducted in partnership with the Business Software Alliance (BSA) the study found the UK piracy rate stood at 26 per cent in 2007, compared to 27 per cent in 2006.

Financially piracy cost the UK economy £925m according to the report.

Despite scoring the lowest piracy rate, the United States felt the greatest loss financially.

Russia was in pole position with a seven percentage point drop to 73 per cent making a 14 percentage piracy decrease over the last five years.

Overall, among the 108 countries surveyed software piracy decreased in 67 of those countries according to the results.

However, the worldwide PC market grew faster in high piracy countries causing the worldwide rate to increase by three percentage points to 38 per cent in 2007, IDC claimed.