Government
Five years ago: Software pirates still on rampage
Software piracy is still costing business billions of dollars a year
First published on 19 December, 1996
Latest data from the Software Publishers Association (SPA) and Business Software Alliance (BSA) suggests a global figure of more than $13.1 billion was lost in 1995 to piracy and abuse. That's up nine per cent on 1994.
The statistics come from commissioned research by International Planning & Research, and cover more than 80 countries.
Eastern European has the highest illegal usage levels at an average of 83 per cent, although the worst offender by country is Vietnam where 99 per cent of software is illegitimate. The other end of the scale is North America with a 27 per cent average.