STAFF REPORT IBD: The software piracy has reached an alarming stage in Pakistan where PC (Personal Computer) penetration is regularly increasing on the rise among individual and companies who pay for the hardware either new or used but do not like to pay for the software, reveals a latest report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
“About 86 per cent of software used in Pakistan during the year 2011 was pirated costing some $ 278 million to the original software makers – a value 122 per cent higher than total pirated software used in 2007 that cost $125 million,” the report shows.
It is to be mentioned here that the global piracy rate for PC software hovers at 42 per cent with value climbing from $58.8 billion in 2010 to $63.4 billion in 2011.
In 2011, BSA recorded that piracy of software remained highest in the developing countries as 56 per cent of new computers sold last years were shipped to developing countries. The study reveals that Asia is topping the piracy costing $21 billion in lost sales. The overall piracy rate in Asia is 60 per cent.