Even though major copyright groups continue to try and combat piracy, a new joint report released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and IDC indicates piracy reached a record high last year, with more than $50 billion in possible revenue lost.
Although the United States ranked last among the country's interview in regards to overall piracy -- only 20 percent -- the estimated value of pirated software was the highest among surveyed nations, racking up close to $9.1 billion.
"The bad news is that PC software piracy remains so prevalent in the United States and all over the world," BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman said in a statement. "It undermines local IT service firms, gives illegal software users an unfair advantage in business, and spreads security risks. We should not and cannot tolerate a $9 billion hit on the software industry at a time of economic stress."
For every dollar lost by the software industry due to piracy, support providers and value-added services end up losing three to four dollars, according to the report. If calculated, piracy actually costs more than $150 billion, and upwards towards $200 billion each year.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has waged a very unpopular war against individuals accused of sharing copyrighted files, while other industry trade groups dabble with different anti-piracy initiatives. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other movie industry groups aim to put additional pressure on ISPs, in an attempt to get them to better police the actions of their users.
I've said it before, but copyright groups need to focus less on individual piracy -- which absolutely won't go away -- and need to worry more about organized piracy groups. Either break up groups pirating and selling stolen software, or stop people before they are able to distribute movies, CDs and other content to individual file sharers.
