The Business Software Alliance (BSA), the voice of the world’s commercial software industry, runs a vigorous antipiracy campaign to limit the impact that piracy has on its members and on those who buy business software legally.

The fifth annual BSA and IDC global software piracy study claimed that piracy declined in many countries; but in fast growing markets piracy caused the overall numbers to worsen. The financial impact is apparently huge: losses due to piracy rose by a claimed $8 billion to 48 billion dollars.

The BSA also claimed that one in every five pieces of software (20%) used in the US today is pirated. The alliance went on to say that it would be unacceptable if the same number of cars were stolen.

Just this month, the BSA launched the Know it / Report it / Reward it campaign that will shine a bright light on wrongdoers. Those who report piracy can be handsomely rewarded for their whistle blowing efforts.

Business software piracy is just part of a bigger problem
Music, movies and video games all suffer from the same illegal act. In his regular Gamasutra column, Reflexive's director of marketing Russell Carrolls said that the full version of his company’s Ricochet Infinity video game had suffered a 92% piracy rate. That 92% figure is the number of full versions used online that were pirated.

Bruce Everiss, a veteran games industry marketer, said in an opinion piece from last April that this 92% piracy figure is probably typical. If video game piracy is that high how do you begin to tackle the problem?

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) claimed in this year’s Digital Music Report that independent estimates say that up to 80% of ISP bandwidth comprises copyright-infringing files. Again, if that assertion is true that is another amazing statistic.

As an example of how bad this copyright infringement has been, the OECD cited Canada as having the highest per capita online piracy rate in the world. In 2006, the Canadian Recording Industry Association claimed that its country’s online piracy rate resulted in 1.6 billion music files being swapped annually.

The reason why the piracy rates were so high in Canada was that the government hadn’t updated the copyright laws to cover digital music. Just last month, the Canadian government proposed to update its copyright legislation. If those updates are passed, Canada’s infamous statistics will hopefully become a record of the past.

A Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) report claimed that the worldwide motion picture industry, which includes foreign and domestic producers, distributors, theaters, video stores and pay-per-view operators lost $18.2 billion in 2005 as a result of piracy.

Piracy abounds
I think that it is fair to say that we all know people who have pirated copyrighted material. In the mid nineties, I worked for one company where you could take the company’s software home and bring it back in the morning. That was something that I couldn’t do. I have always been a stickler for using software legally.

In my home city, you don’t have to travel far to see the end fruits of this piracy. The laundries always had people walking through, especially during the weekend, who offered their ill-gotten wares.

If you’ve got teenage children, piracy is probably occurring right under your nose. I’ve got two teenage stepsons, and they see no wrongdoing when copyright laws are broken.

Casual piracy is firmly embedded in the minds of those who do it. But why do they do it? (1). They don’t believe strongly enough that piracy is wrong. (2). It is too easy to do. (3). The chance of getting caught and facing any sort of serious punishment is very remote indeed. If that apathetic mindset isn’t changed then piracy rates will continue to get worse.

What is the answer?
Some people would say that the industry piracy claims are way over the top. But the piracy rates would still be a very serious problem even if those figures proved to be only half of what was claimed.

Unless there is a technological breakthrough where piracy can be stopped in its tracks the solution will require many avenues of attack and a lengthy period of time before real declines are seen. Since there doesn’t appear to be a technical breakthrough coming any time soon let’s consider generally what needs to be done.

Since piracy is a global problem a global solution is required. If the solution isn’t global there will be areas of the world ‘left open’ that the piracy consortium will exploit.

Education, education, education. I know, I sound like the former UK prime minister Tony Blair. But what he said about the importance of education is true. In our schools we need to educate and hammer home to our children that piracy is wrong.

There needs to be a global advertising campaign in every domain where piracy is a problem. This campaign will have to be paid for by government, as it’s the general populace that feeds this piracy problem.

Piracy laws need to be in place that act as a deterrent. When those laws are enacted resources commensurate to the problem need to be in place to tackle this problem head-on.

The US, Europe and other developed countries will have to set the example and show that they have a piracy code that works - which the rest of the world can adopt. If that leadership is not forthcoming, just like Kyoto, a global solution to a global problem will never get off the ground. X

Check Out
Global software piracy study
Know it / Report it / Reward it campaign
IFPI Digital Music Report
MPAA reports
Russell Carroll's column
Game piracy