Study: 41% of all PC software installed is pirated

[anon]

If you live in the US, you live in a country where about 20% of all software installed on PCs is pirated. Globally that number jumps to 41%. At least, that's the finding of a study from IDC and the Business Software Alliance.

The study claims that the piracy rate actually fell in most of the 110 countries studied, but because PC shipments grew the most in countries like China and India with high piracy rates, the number jumped from 38% in 2007 to 41% in 2008.

The biggest problem with studies like these is that they try to put a dollar amount on the "losses" from piracy. In this case, the report suggests that software companies lost out on $53 billion due to piracy. But that's only true if every single individual that installed a bootlegged copy of your software would have purchased it otherwise. I'm pretty sure that's not true.

Study: 41% of all PC software installed is pirated

Agree with the last point. It's true that piracy often enables users to do a "real" full trial of the product, rather than test manufacturers' often very restricted demos.

[splicer]

It's there own damn fault. Companies such as MicroSoft charge hundreds of £/$ for an operating system which can only be installed on one computer. That is completely unfair and unnecesary, in schoools and work environments, where thousands could be spent just equipping their computers with an Windows, and because of it, many people, inlcuding myself, revert to pirating OSs. And it works wonders, despite M$'s attempts to stop piracy via such methods as WGA. I've been running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 perfectly for the past year (R.I.P. BIE). And why? Because I had no other choice, as Windows is the OS I use most within my life, beit at home or at school.

M$ could afford to give Windows 7 away for free. As many know, Billy is the world's richest man ($40 Billion +) so why be such a corporate thug? He should take a lesson from Linux, and how Debian has $13 billion worth of work applied to it. It's their own greed which is causing their losses. Can anyone say irony?

[SealLion]

I have to totally agree with you. It is greed which is causing companies to lose money and such their losses increase.

Also, this study, I tend to think that the number would be somewhat different.

Here's what I mean:

Who did they undertake this study with?
Where was this study done??...which country's did they include and not include??
How many people did they sample?
What income group did they sample??

etc...etc...

I would tend to think that the global percentage is probably higher than that.

Maybe this survey is somewhat biased to one goup of pple that were sampled in this survey??...Maybe it only took place in one hemisphere.

I cant' say for sure and I'm not saying that this is all written in stone. It's just questions to ponder over when you come across such surveys.
That's all.


Anyways, I tend to think that this number (41 %) is higher than what's stated.
That's just my opinion.

Also, most people probably don't even know how to use pirated software.

How many times have you come across someone who said to you: "I don't even know how to use a computer. I just use it for email and stuff"

People like you and me who are computer literate know how to do this thing. We come across warez sites; we read about it on other forums and elsewhere on the internet; etc...etc...

[anon]

Hi SealLion,

this is where the news article took the data from:
Business Software Alliance - A Fifth of PC Software in United States is Pirated, Posing Challenges to High Tech Sector and Cyber Security

Now you say it, and seeing it's the BSA that came up with that number, I wouldn't be surprised to know it's somehow biased...

Also, most people probably don't even know how to use pirated software.

How many times have you come across someone who said to you: "I don't even know how to use a computer. I just use it for email and stuff"

Unfortunately, that's the same people scammers take advantage of to charge for "unlimited movie access", P2P programs that are free, ...

[kazuya]

it's for sure more then 41%,i would say about 60%.On my PC is 100% cracked software,well except freeware

[SealLion]

YOu know what anon??.....The study was done in the US, yes??

It's definitly not a global survey,then.

It's a survey that was done in only one region of the globe.

There's about a 'gaz-illion' pple in various country's that have cracked software. Not just in NA, but also in China, other areas of Asia, Europe too.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised that some jockey in antarctica is using a pirated OS right now as we speak.

And for the article to state that it poses a challenge to security and high tech areas.
WEll, maybe that's a good thing, then.

Look at it this way:

Cracker hacks into system;
system becomes aware of being compromised;
system becomes better then after the fact of being compromised.

And yes, this should also be good news for other pple as well. Like the example you mentioned earlier: About scammers scamming pple to download material for $$.
THat's a farce for sure.

Do you remember those guys....can't remember where they came from. Some place in Europe. I think from Crete or somewhere from that area. They owned a number of P2P places and were charging pple to download material from their numerous sites claiming to have these massive download rates that would allow pple to download material in no time and the fact that their sites had tonnes of stuff.

Eventually, they were caught and it made headlines on the net.

It occured last year, I recall.

It was big news then.

Anyways... the story goes on:
These 2 guys, whether they were brothers or freinds in 'scamship' (er...another way to say, in 'friendship' using this example), made millions that they collected over what-ever amount of time.
They bought nice new cars; had photos taken of that as well.

Basically, these guys were using sites like TPB and other sites that their users were thinking they were downloading directly from the Pay2Leech site, not from some tracker like TPB or elsewhere.

bAsically, they scammed everybody;
they scammed thier own mothers for all I know;
They probably scammed the queen for God's sake.

do you remember such a story??

Anyways...back to topic:

The results would have to be biased.

Who benefits from such bias??
Seriously, think about it??
The companys that have the greatest to lose, that's who would have the most to gain from such biased reports.

who would be out there to protect them??
What laws would be enacted to ensure future protection??

etc...etc....

YOu know what I mean??

[Snitlev]

I Know

[Dynamic]

I have to agree with SealLion on the number being a lot higher.

My PC is somewhat bought a year back with bare bones stuff...still cost me $1.5k.

If I had spent all the money to buy software it would jump to more than $3k.

I understand a company has to make profits but that is just insane.

I just can't justify spending so much money for software when I can only use on one computer...

[SealLion]

Oh, ya. Can you imagine the amount of money that you would have spent??

Money on AV, a better firewall, recording software, burning software, a media player that in not necessary open source, like BSPlayer Pro for example, wiping programs, and this and that....and so on and so on.....a tonne of coin after your done at the end of the day.

Software companies make a killing of, off the softwares that they sell.

So who uses cracked, keygen'd, and software with illegal serials....pple like you and me and everybody else.

The bus driver, the nurse working in the medical clinic, the tradesman, the clerk, etc...etc....I am sure that you guys know this anyways, yes??

I am positive that, that number would be higher.
It's only a variable that was taken from one country.
Of course, that number may vary from country to country, yes??

THe money that these companies do charge is definity, over priced.
Just like you mentioned Dynamic.

NOw take also into consideration, the number of people that use pirated music and movies. That;'s pple like you and me, too.


Do you think that there would be a link??

I would tend to think so.

Now I'm not judging pple here nor making comparisons.
Only making a statement of opinion that is mine in which I believe that pple who use pirated software would also become aware of music from torrent sites, warez sites, streaming movie sites like Aberdeen-scifi.net and 66Stage.com, etc..etc...yes??


Those pple would tend to use sites as well as their illegally gotten gains of software.
They read about them; come across them, etc...etc...

that's my opinion.

So there are some other elements involved, too I believe.

[alpacino]

If they make this survey in China, Brazil or Russia the number would be 100000%