Software piracy on the rise globally, but dips in India

The commercial value of pirated software increased 14 per cent in 2010 to $58.8 billion - nearly double the total for 2003 - with emerging economies, including India, China, Russia and Brazil, accounting for over half the total, according to figures released by a trade group that tracks piracy.

Businesses and consumers around the world bought $95 billion worth of legal personal computer (PC) software in 2010, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), but they installed another $58.8 billion in pirated software.

"This means that for every dollar spent on legitimate software in 2010, an additional 63 cents worth of unlicensed software also made its way into the market," the BSA said.

At $31.9 billion, emerging economies accounted for over half the commercial value of pirated software last year, the BSA said in its eighth Global Software Piracy Study.

India, however, showed a marginal improvement. Software piracy in the country declined to 64 per cent from 65 per cent in 2009.

BSA estimates show that the commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in India touched $2.739 billion in 2010, whereas the global losses stood at $59 billion.