Is Software Piracy Stealing Jobs?
Reducing software piracy by just 10 percentage points worldwide would generate 1.5 million jobs and add $400 billion to the world economy, according to a study released Wednesday by the Business Software Alliance and IDC. The BSA, composed of giant software vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, and Apple Computer, pegs the percentage of software programs pirated globally at 40 percent. The IDC study, commissioned by the BSA, concludes that reducing that rate to 30 percent would enable nations to add a total of $64 billion to their tax coffers.