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.
That's really an interesting little article.
It actually confirms my impression that mostly people that cannot afford to pay the SW are pirating it. And that's not because they would want to sell it further, but because their technological development - maybe their very existence in world's markets - depends on that SW they cannot afford.
That also means that the big SW producers would have a lot more to gain by special offers made to those countries - in accordance to their real payment possibilities - instead of promoting agressive tactics like the BSA kind of tactics or spending huge bucks on futile protection code.
Once more, it shows how important is to pay attention to your customer's needs.