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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Asia Pac hits piracy jack-pot By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia June 12, 2002 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Asia-Pac-hits-piracy-jack-pot/0,139023166,120265893,00.htm
The seventh annual study into global software piracy, commissioned by the Business Software Association (BSA), has named the Asia-Pacific region as the most costly in terms of software piracy, with losses for 2001 topping US$4.5 billion. At the bottom of the heap was New Zealand, with a software piracy rate of just 25 percent, on par with that of the UK and US markets. Vietnam and China again featured as the world's most prolific software pirates, although in compiling its data the BSA again failed to take into account national laws regarding copyright and intellectual property. Developed countries received a slap on the wrists for failing to make greater inroads into the prevalence of software piracy, with the study pointing out that the level of such misdemeanours in such countries had stabilised rather than falling further. The study also indicated that software piracy increased in an inverse proportion to overall economic performance which led researchers to the disturbing conclusion: -compliance with software licensing is at risk of being considered an economic luxury that can be abandoned in difficult times". While dollar losses due to piracy declined by 6.7 percent, this was primarily due to corrections in the relative value of the US dollar, and by no means an indication that the prevalence of software piracy had declined, the study said. According to the study the piracy rate in Australia dropped from 33 to 27 percent.
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