Software piracy: Pak ranks 5th

Pakistan's software piracy rate has increased to 86 per cent, placing it in fifth position among the top 20 countries with the highest piracy figures.

The annual Global Software Piracy Study 2006 was conducted by International Data Corporation, the IT industry's leading global market research and forecasting firm and released by Business Software Alliance, a group of the world's leading software companies formed to fight piracy.

"In the previous year, Pakistan had 82 per cent software piracy rate and it stood 12th among the top 20 software piracy countries," co-chairman BSA, West Asia, Al Redha said in a press statement issued in Islamabad.

He said last year the international software, music and film industry representatives had appreciated Pakistan's efforts for checking piracy through plant closures, destruction of unlicensed CDs, arrests and confiscations of illegally imported disks.

But Al Redha stressed that lowering the software piracy rate is a matter of continued work on multiple fronts, such as creating awareness, improving law enforcement and encouraging better asset management for businesses.

The BSA-IDC study estimates that over the next four years almost $200 billion worth of PC software is likely to be pirated globally.

The report expressed the need for implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization's Copyright Treaty, which ensures that copyright works are not made available online without the author's permission.

Also, governments must fulfil their obligations under the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, the report said.

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