What is the economic impact of software piracy?
In the United States, 25 percent of all business software is unlicensed. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimates that in 2001 the industry lost more than $1.8 billion in revenue in the United States alone due to software theft. But software piracy’s damaging economic impact is not just confined to the software industry. In fact, software piracy has an effect on the economic health of the nation as a whole. In 2000, the United States suffered a staggering 118,000 job losses, $5.6 billion in lost wages and $1.6 billion in lost tax revenue due to pirated software.
