Piracy estimates too low, claims MS

Piracy is bigger than most people believe, says Redmond giant

Microsoft has claimed that software piracy accounts for between 70 and 80 per cent of software installations globally, more than three times the official figure.

The revelation comes after the Seattle firm backed online reseller Dabs.com after it banned sales of second-hand Microsoft software on its website.

Julia Phillpot, anti-piracy marketing manager at Microsoft, said: "Piracy is a huge issue - it is much bigger than people believe. Official figures from the Business Software Alliance [of which Microsoft is a founder member] claim a quarter of software installations are from a copy, but it is more like 70 or 80 per cent."

Dave Atherton, managing director of Dabs.com, agreed. He said Dabs' decision was made because it witnessed "endemic" levels of piracy amongst Microsoft products, and the only answer was to ban second-hand Microsoft software.

Atherton did not give figures for the piracy levels, but claimed they were far beyond that of software from other vendors.

He said he hoped the move would discourage people from copying Microsoft products, and confirmed that Dabs would not exclude the sale of second-hand software from other manufacturers.

Phillpot welcomed Dabs' decision. "Dabs is being very responsible. This will help us clamp down on software pirates," she said.

She added that Microsoft hopes to curb piracy itself with the introduction of Product Activation in its Windows XP and Office XP software.

"Product Activation means software has to be registered over the net to specific PCs, so it cannot be copied. The piracy levels we are now seeing illustrate that we were right to introduce this technology," she said.