The local software industry last year lost R1.9 billion to piracy - an increase in economic terms, despite this figure reflecting a single percentage point drop over 2006.
The fifth annual global PC software piracy study, conducted by research house IDC on behalf of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), found the increase in economic losses is largely due to exchange rates and the overall growth in the software market over the past year.
"This report shows SA is making progress in the battle against software piracy," says Alastair de Wet, chairman of the local BSA committee. "Reducing piracy further would deliver significant benefits for local consumers, local software and services firms, small businesses, and the society at large."
The research found the software piracy rate in SA has been dropping consistently every year since 2004, when it peaked at 37%, to the current rate of 34% in 2007.
Software piracy affects much more than just industry revenue, the IDC says in a statement. The BSA released an economic impact study in January, which found that reducing software piracy by 10% would create more employment and increase IT spend to R6 billion.
The study, which was conducted among 108 countries, also found PC software piracy dropped in 67 countries, and increased in only eight. However, because the worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy countries, the worldwide piracy rate increased by three percentage points, to 38%, in 2007.
In the Middle East and Africa region, the highest-piracy countries were Zimbabwe (91%), Yemen (89%) and Iraq (85%). SA (34%) was the second lowest-piracy country in the region and Israel (32%) showed the least rate of software piracy.
"This study shows that government and industry anti-piracy efforts are delivering software piracy reductions in many countries; however, rapid PC growth in higher-piracy emerging markets translates into an overall increase in global piracy," says John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. "We expect this trend to continue, meaning industry and government must increasingly focus their efforts on combating piracy in these emerging economies."
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