Software piracy is slowly declining worldwide. However, piracy rates in developed countries like the US, while low, are not getting any lower.
Software piracy is a source of pain for both software makers and users; the former suffer a hit to the top line, and the latter can be hit with a raft of fines. Many companies don't even realize that some of the software they use has not been legally obtained. Others, of course, do.
While piracy remains a big problem — 35 percent of packaged software installed on PCs worldwide in 2005 was illegal — there are signs that the tide may be turning. A study sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a Washington-based software industry trade group, finds that the software piracy decreased moderately in more than half (51) of the 97 countries it surveyed, while rising in only 19. In China, one of the world's fastest growing IT markets, piracy dropped by 4 percent in 2005, marking the second consecutive yearly decline. Piracy also dropped by 6 percent in Ukraine, 4 percent in Russia, and by 2 percent in India.
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