$138 million pirated software seized in 2007 in Malaysia
55 business were raided by Malaysian authorities in 2007 for using pirated software, the highest ever number of raids conducted. A total of RM 4.5 million ($138 Million) of pirated software and equipment were seized during those raids.
Source: “Bumper year for antipiracy raiders,” The Star, December 25, 2007,(accessed: January 14, 2008).
35 percent of software installed on computers around the world are pirated
Source: Fourth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study, May 2007.
Ration of software piracy
According to an article in the Financial Times, for every 5,000 Full-Time equivalent employees, £1 million ($1.9 million) worth of non-compliant or unlicensed software would typically be found in company offices.
Source: Alan Cane, “Attacking the pirates,” Financial Times, February 28, 2007, Digital Business section, pg. 1.
Microsoft lost $14 billion to piracy in 2005
Source: Charles Piller, “How Piracy Opens Doors for Windows,” Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2006.
Top ten software pirated by corporations
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) has a list of the top ten pirated software by corporations and other organizations in 2007.
From the SIIA Anti-Piracy 2007 Year in Review:
1. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
2. Adobe Acrobat
3. Symantec PC Anywhere
4. Adobe Photoshop
5. Autodesk AutoCAD
6. Adobe DreamWeaver
7. Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator
8. Roxio Toast Titanium
9. Ipswitch WS_FTP
10. Nero Ultra [...]
Busting a $900 million Microsoft piracy ring
The Associated Press has a report on how Microsoft broke up a global piracy ring that generated $900 million in revenue.
From the AP:
Near-perfect knockoffs of 21 different Microsoft programs began surfacing around the world just over a decade ago. Soon, PCs in more than a dozen countries were running illegal copies of Windows and Office, [...]
Microsoft increases earnings by stamping out piracy
Microsoft increases their quarterly revenues by cracking down on pirated copies of Windows and forcing users to pay for legitimate copies.
From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:
Microsoft’s recent jump in Windows sales can be traced in part to a basic concept — getting more people who use its programs to pay for them.
The company says efforts [...]
90 percent of software violations setteled by BSA are small businesses
The Associated Press has reported that 90 percent of the $13 million in settlements recovered by the Business Software Alliance are small businesses.
An analysis by The Associated Press reveals that targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec [...]
Russia continues to use piracy enforcement as political tool
Russian officials are using the cover of software enforcement to raid and seize the computers of groups that are in opposition to the current regime.
From the Washington Post:
In multiple police raids against such groups, authorities are ostensibly targeting the alleged use of counterfeit software. Western governments and companies have long urged action against the widespread [...]
Latest steps by Microsoft to combat Piracy
Microsoft has created a new website to assist consumers in determining whether the software that they have purchased for $5 is a counterfeit.
The new Web site provides information for how customers can tell whether software is genuine. It shows examples of suspicious packaging and other clues that can help alert users if they’re buying the [...]
