Software piracy costs record $63.4 billion in 2011: study

Almost half of personal computer users around the world get their software illegally, with China's massive market the worst culprit, a report claimed on Wednesday.A Business Software Alliance (BSA) survey showed 47 percent of PC users globally believe there is nothing wrong with using unauthorised copies of software programs.This includes buying a single licence for multiple installations or downloading programs from peer-to-peer networks, BSA said.The survey of 15,000 PC users in 32 countries showed Chinese users have the most relaxed attitude to piracy.

Asia can generate billions of dollars in new business and taxes and create hundreds of thousands of jobs within a few years if it cracks down on software piracy, an industry study showed Wednesday.The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and research group IDC said nearly 60 percent of all software programmes installed on personal computers in the region are pirated.

The world must spend an extra US$700-billion a year to curb its addiction to fossil fuels blamed for worsening floods and heat waves and rising sea levels, a study issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed on Monday. As government and business leaders prepare to meet at the forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, the world’s nations are divided over who should pay for lowering emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for a growing number of extreme weather events.

The BSA research, carried out by Vanson Bourne, polled decision makers with responsibility for purchasing software in 250 small businesses in the UK. For a sizeable proportion of these businesses, the way they bought or downloaded illegal software appeared to be pre-meditated. More than one in five admitted to using a software key generator for business purposes – a small programme that will generate an unauthorised but working registration key or serial number for a piece of software. It is typically used to create an illegal version of a software application.

The commercial value of pirated software increased 14 percent last year to nearly $59 billion, with emerging economies accounting for over half the total, according to a study published Thursday.Businesses and consumers around the world bought $95 billion worth of legal personal computer (PC) software in 2010, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), but they installed another $58.8 billion in pirated software.

The paragraphs below come courtesy of Mark Mobius, emerging markets guru and executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Friday decried the use of pirated software by Chinese businesses."One of the things that has improved a lot around the world is business piracy, and yet when we look at China today business piracy is more extreme than consumer piracy," he told a business forum in Madrid."We are working hard with the support of the Chinese government to improve the situation but it is a real problem," the head of the world's largest software maker added.

Democracy around the world was in decline in 2012 for the seventh year in a row as the Arab Spring led nervous autocratic leaders to clamp down on any stirrings of dissent, a study said Wednesday.