The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) annual global software piracy study indicates that 35 per cent of software applications in Canada were pirated in 2003. The study indicates that software piracy is having a significant impact on Canada, costing the economy CDN $990 million in lost retail sales of software. Among key findings: - In North America, the overall piracy rate was 23 percent. The losses totaled more than CDN $9.6 billion. - The piracy rate in the Asia/Pacific region was 53 percent, with dollar losses totaling more than CDN $10 billion. - In Eastern Europe, the piracy rate was 71 percent, with dollar losses at more than CDN $3.8 billion. - In Western Europe, the rate was 36 percent and dollar losses totaledCDN $12.8 billion. - The average rate across Latin American countries was 63 percent, with losses totaling nearly CDN $1.7 billion. - In the Middle Eastern and African countries, the rate was 56 percent on average, with losses totaling nearly CDN $1.3 billion. "Software piracy continues to be a major challenge for economies worldwide," said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of BSA. "From Algeria to New Zealand, Canada to China, it deprives local governments of tax revenue, costs jobs throughout the technology supply chain and cripples the local, in-country software industry." "The fight for strong intellectual property protection and respect for copyrighted works spans the globe, and there is much work to be done," Holleyman said. "Lowering the piracy rate will stimulate local economic activity, generate government revenue, create job growth and cultivate future innovation." The study found that while CDN $107 billion dollars in software was installed on computers worldwide last year only CDN $68 billion was paid for.7/16/2004
