Software piracy costs record $63.4 billion in 2011: study

These numbers are all completely made up by industry shills, it's sad that news organizations continue to regurgitate them without any critical analysis.

Does this include torrents sites as well? How could they possible know the total numbers. It must be a wild guess at best.

I think the author should check out the TED talk titled "The 8-billion dollar iPod". It very clearly explains that the numbers mean nothing, and in fact, and pretty much impossibly high.

Well maybe if the greedy motion picture and music industries stopped charging ridiculous prices for their items and caught up with the times this would be less of an issue. Lets face it the days of the CD are numbered why do these industries move to digital downloads and market their products more that way. Also in this technological age why is it that they need to have different release dates around the world for the same items.

I for one refuse to pay the prices they ask for music cd's when they are much cheaper on itunes or though other options.

$63.4 billion - totally untrue!

If that had been the price - nobody would have bought it.

They only downloaded it because it was free.

My personal beef is the Region Ripoff with DVDs.

I don't need to re-buy a DVD that I bought in the U.K. because I can't watch it on Japanese equipment.

johninnaha

My personal beef is the Region Ripoff with DVDs. I don't need to re-buy a DVD that I bought in the U.K. because I can't watch it on Japanese equipment.

Just buy a multi region DVD player its simple.

Piracy cost them $63.4 billion? What a bold faced lie! If that were true, they would be completely out of business!

In fact, piracy cost them absolutely nothing. Not one dime. The figure represents money they think they could have made without piracy, but that is totally differnet from a cost. And that my friends is just another fine example of how these people BS us. They BS us with the price of their products. They BS us by lobbying our government to extend copyright terms. They BS us with region encoding. They BS us with staggered movie releases. They BS us so much, I have zero sympathy. Ask yourself what BSA really stands for!

And no, $63.4 billion is not even the money they would have made if not for piracy because I bet half or more of all pirates would not have bothered if they could not get it for free. You cannot get blood from a stone.

If they want to see piracy decline, they need to start by stopping the BS.

`johninnaha

UK and Japanese DVDs are both Region 2. I've never had any problem playing DVDs from back home on Japanese equipment.

Just buy a multi region DVD player its simple.

And pay more for a simple setting adjustment and another player. Just another reason why we feel no guilt over piracy.

I made my old DVD player region free by getting the codes retailers use off the internet. But its not so simple for Blu-ray... yet. But at least there are only 3 regions with Blu-ray and 70 percent of titles are not region encoded.

not only software but also the Italian designer labels are copied, especially by Chinese rogue

My personal beef is release dates.

By the time Avengers hit Japan on August 16th or whatever. Piratebay is going to have it in HD all over the place. But I've already seen it during my trip to US, and paid 17 dollars for 2 tickets. So can anyone tell me, with 3 months delay and jacked up movie prices, who is stealing from who?

The whole intellectual right agenda is made up bureaucratic profit seeking. Typical fascist mentality where a cartel of corporations is lobbying the government for more protectionist laws. Pathetic This should be illegal, not downloading!

Just out of curiosity, I wonder how OpenOffice and Ubuntu cast the industry?

Lucabrasi:

UK and Japanese DVDs are both Region 2. I've never had any problem playing DVDs from back home on Japanese equipment.

Actually, I always use VLC, which bypasses the Region issue.

If I use DVD player on my Mac, I get this Region problem.

There is a problem here.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder how OpenOffice and Ubuntu cast the industry?

Good question. For most users Office is redundant when you can get OpenOffice for free. As others have stated these figures are nonsense. Maybe 10 percent of those who downloaded may have bought legit copies, the others may have gone for a cheaper product (in the case of an expensive product like photoshop) and a good percentage of people would not have bought at all. How many people download for the sake of downloading and never use the product? A lot I would say.

make dem suckers pay!!

go BRICS!

smash da corporate leeches...

The article complains about China being the leader in piracy... here's a news flash for Hollywood. Stop asking China to produce your CDs and DVDs! It's lunacy to ask the fox to guard the hen-house and expect it not to eat the chickens.

The average Chinese laborer gets extremely small amounts of pay for making the DVD's that will be sold for high prices. Those laborers need to eat, and they can make money by making a few extra copies for themselves. If Chinese piracy is such a big problem, how about making your product in America? Pay a decent wage with insurance, and the employees will be less likely to feel a need to sell illegal copies to feed their families.

It's ironic that companies like Sony make computers with CD-Ripping programs built into them, then complain that people are actually using those programs to rip their CD's.

If someone bought a version Office previous to Office 2007 and then bought a new computer, he might find that his old version of Office would not install on his new Windows 7 computer. He would have to either buy a second version of Word or download an illegal copy.

Only higher version of Windows 7 run an XP mode and I believe earlier versions of Office can be installed in XP mode.

From a fellow pirate,"Stop copying my copy of my copy."

When will big corporations learn ? Piracy does NOT equal lost sales! People who pirate are not going to buy your products in the first place. If your product is not pirate-able, it will not got bought by pirates! I'm not saying that as an excuse to pirate, but I think any sensible corporations should keep that in mind to make better policy combating pirates.

For example, Microsoft's stand on piracy, "if people want to pirate products, it better be our products, when the country is strong enough in economy & ip rights, it will be too dependent on our products, and then we can cash in on them".

The main culprid is China. The piracy rate of software in China is over 80 percent, eight out of 10 software products in use are unlicensed. Software includes everything from computer programs to movies, music and video games. The Chinese government refused to criminalize software piracy. There is a lack of deterrent enforcement in China and if they find the offender, they fine them very small fees. China has not been great in bringing criminal action against pirates. They should be tried criminally. The government has simply failed to devote energy and resources to dealing with the problem.

Many people download stuff just because it's "free", but they never would have paid for them even if that was the only option. The companies are not really losing money. I might watch "The Hulk" online, but would never have paid to see it.

Cletus, how about not spending any more money and just rip the content out of the DVD with some pirated software? Paying more than once for viewing that DVD means that the users must bend over multiple times.

Washington-based BSA is a non-profit trade body that works for copyright protection and counts among its members some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Symantec and Adobe.

Haha, non-profit my *ss...

This article is so biased, blaming piracy for profit loss?

First things first, the companies listed as BSA's clients are in the top global companies earning hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and continue to squeeze money from users.

Why do we have to upgrade our equipment and software every several years? Why do we have to pay again and again for something like the operating system, when we already bought an authentic copy just a few years ago.

I admit, some my be able to afford the rapidly-changing technology ... but for most, this tech race is just a big pain in the budget.

Do we really need a new e-book reader every 6 months? A new cellphone every year? A new computer every 3 years?

When will big corporations learn ? Piracy does NOT equal lost sales!

Oh, they know it. They are just trying to make some people feel bad and others feel sorry for them. Its a fool that does either.

Here's a wildcard conspiracy theory I heard recently. It's one of those unprovable theories that makes you go hmmm.

The conspiracy theorists say that the media conglomerates want to control everything we see and hear. Their ultimate enemy is not the pirate but the library. After all, libraries provide copies of movies, music and books for free!! But, if the mega-companies get their way, and pass their laws, libraries will be shut down because they aren't paying royalties... which will allow the conglomerates to redistribute only the media they allow people to know about... Fahrenheit 451 style.

Yeah, its just a silly conspiracy theory... but it does make me wonder how far the media corps will go to stop people from copying or viewing stuff for free.

@johninnaha

Did you mean blu-ray for some reason Bluray region coding is different from DVD region coding

What is all this talk about buying software? As I am sure Microsoft and others will confirm, you cannot buy their software: you can only buy a highly restrictive license to use it. Strangle, the law in many countries accepts the you have agreed to this license when you open the box even if you do not sign the agreement.

When you buy something, it becomes yours to do what you like with. You can take it apart if you so wish. If you actually own the software, you can move it to a new computer or use it on as many computers as you want.

You may pay for your copy of Windows, but you have not bought it. If you buy a new computer, it will almost certainly have a copy of Windows on it. You pay for that copy even if you do not need or want it as was often the case with Vista. Try to get a refund if you do not want the software you have been forced to pay for and see what you get.

Why shouldn't people be legally able to move their old XP and Office from their old computer to a new one?

Regarding DVD movie piracy region coding is a scam to allow Hollywood to overcharge people in rich countries. I believe it is illegal in some countries, maybe New Zealand, I forget. I do believe it contravenes WTO regulations of free trade.

Those numbers are a lie.

I know what the 'BS' means, but what does the 'A' stand for in 'BSA'? (^-^)

This headline could just as easily be revised to say "Software piracy saved Chinese citizens a record $63.4 billion in 2011."

Do they count every pirated copy as a possible sale and therefore money lost? if that is the case then these numbers are way. A lot of people, if they didn't pirate something would have watched it or bought it wise.

There are other studies that show becuase of pirated copies, the actual number of copies that sold are actually higher. many people, not a lot, but a good percentage of people who pirate will purchase the game if its good. It also acts as an advertising agent in many regards. I have read two different stories that did a poll on people who pruchaces their games. They found a LARGE amount of people had actually found out about the game through a torrent site, and NOT the official online advertising campaign.

I am not advocating stealing or pirating software. I am just saying these numbers and stories are telling a VERY black and white picture, when in this area of the law that is VERY much NOT the case.

In many way you could say that Video rental stores are stealing billions of DVD sales becuase people are renting and not buying. Many people, if the movie is good will buy on DVD or blu-ray anyway. just like rentals.

Record companies and movie studios are making bigger profits than ever so it is a bit rich for them to always cry about lost revenue. They get no sympathy from me!

Meh, this raving about piracy is just lame, and in fact most piracy is caused by a lack of availability rather than by cheaters wanting a free ride. For example the Game of Thrones. It's now the most pirated tv program of all time, but that's because the only way to watch it is if you have a subscription to a cable company in the US. Imagine if the markers started selling episodes for rent in iTunes in Japan, the UK, etc. Even if only 1% of the piraters in those countries paid to download it off of a safe, legal site, they'd make a killing. The same thing happens again and again and again. Stupid companies want to control the timing of releases so they drive people away.

Did you mean blu-ray for some reason Bluray region coding is different from DVD region coding

Yes, that's part of it.

It's ridiculous. And the reason why people download things for free - torrents, etc.

I honestly believe that the majority of torrent downloaders wouldn't begrudge paying for it, if the price were reasonable and the Region issue wasn't there.

iTunes kind of proved this.

Windows?

Does anybody outside a corporation environment actually use Windows?

They CHOOSE to?

OMG!

You can obtain trial copies which have full functions and then there's another software you can install which blocks out going messages, so you just block out going messages for the trial software and run it for ever, but you can't update until you download a new version. This method isn't illegal, it's one of those gray areas.

The software we build and sell (lease) has a trial copy with limitations on its functions as well as a time period. Like most software, there is a license agreement (EULA) that you have to agree to before you can completely install it. One of the terms for our EULA is that periodic license verification will be performed unless a special agreement is in place. If you attempt to block the periodic verification process, the software will give adequate prior warnings before disabling itself.

Customers have told us it is extremely reasonably priced and often pays for itself on the first use, and nearly always by the third use -- which normally happens within a month. After that, it's saving customers a tremendous amount of time and money.

The figure represents money they think they could have made without piracy, but that is totally differnet from a cost.

I believe it is called an "opportunity cost."

I believe it is called an "opportunity cost."

Not sure it is, but I am happy to hear more.

Did anybody else happen to notice these guys are called the BS Alliance?

This article is about software. If software was made more easily accessible and at a reasonable price the situation would be much different. These figures also include pirated Windoze operating systems. In china and India around 60% of Windoze PCs are running pirated OS. That must make up a huge part of this ridiculous figure.

As for music: I am a musician and can tell you for a fact that the artist gets very little from music sales. It is the production companies that take up to 95% (or more) of the revenue from music. This, to me, makes downloading music less of a crime than what the criminals in production companies are doing.

If software was made more easily accessible and at a reasonable price the situation would be much different.

Really? How do you make it more accessible than a simple download? The same as any music track.

I feel so sad and sorry for all of the parasite leeches that have run and owned HOLLYWOOD for years and years, man! I can not even sleep at night, wondering how many billions and billions of $$$$$ they must be losing 24/7 thanks to our CHINESE amigos copying the $h!t out of everything and anything!