India among top 20 software piracy nations

Despite huge software exports, India is one of 20 countries where software piracy far exceeds legal use. But if anti-piracy efforts are not stepped up, it could lose a lot more than its partners in crime, a new report shows.
At 73 pc piracy in software, India accounts for $367 mn of the $28 bn that corporations lose every year to illegal copying, distribution and downloads, says a report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a group set up by global IT majors to fight piracy. The difference is: India is the rare one on the list with huge stakes in the global software and IT services business that is reeling under piracy. In short, it could end up losing more from piracy, say BSA officials.
‘‘High piracy is not just a drag on big software but also slows economic growth and inhibits smaller firms,’’ says Tarun Sawhney, BSA’s Asia anti-piracy head. ‘‘Online piracy over shared networks such as eDonkey and FastTrack are among our bigger threats,’’ he adds. BSA has computed global corporate losses worth $30 bn over 2003 from illegally sold software and figures would be more when accounting for lost oppportunity costs, employment and tax revenues.
China’s software piracy is the world’s highest at 92 pc, while India’s rates have fallen 20 pc in less than a decade.