Piracy eats $48 billion revenue sales of software companies

Piracy in the software industry continues to grow, this time slashing $48 billion in the revenue of software companies in 2007. This is in contrast with the dip of piracy rates in most countries. Piracy rates decreased in 67 out of 108 countries. Despite that, an $8 billion overall loss growth is being experienced worldwide by the software industry. It has been noted though, that half of the increase in losses are attributed to the depreciation of the dollar.The Business Software Alliance or BSA, have reported in their fifth annual report that there are “emerging markets”, like Brazil, Russia, China, and India, which grow in PC sales per year. However, the rate of growth of PC sales does not correspond directly to the number of software shipments. BSA President Robert Holleyman stated that these emerging markets report to have 46 percent of new computer shipments last year, yet the percentage of software shipments is just 17.That clearly tells how the number of software products lags behind PC sales, and this provides evidence of piracy. The BSA provides in-depth reports of the effect on revenue sales of firms due to software piracy.