COMPUTER SOFTWARE PIRACY COSTS INDIA $2 BN

New Delhi
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The Indian software industry lost about two billion dollars of revenue this year due to use of pirated softwares, a study has said.

A study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the global software industry, showed that though computer software piracy rates in India declined, the country still registered losses to the tune of 2 billion dollars in 2007 in monetary terms, compared to 1.28 billion dollar in 2006.

Piracy of software on personal computers (PC) in India has come down to 69 percentage points for 2007, toeing the global trend in which piracy rates dropped in most countries, the study said.

The software piracy menace has been haunting the major software developers like Microsoft.

Microsoft (India) Managing Director Neelam Dhawan had earlier said the industry is losing a large share of its revenue due to circulation of pirated softwares.

It has also acted as a dampener for the local software firms for developing applications.

"There are less Indian success stories of software applications being adopted on a large scale as India has a high piracy rate and therefore Indian companies do not make money," an industry expert said.

Software piracy affects much more than just the industry revenues; it even hits the job market and eventually the country's economic growth.

An IDC economic impact study released in January this year found that by reducing PC software piracy in India by 10 percentage points over a period of four years could generate an additional 44,000 new jobs, 3.1 billion dollars in economic growth, and 200 million dollar in tax revenues.