Software Piracy in the Philippines

[pioneer]

By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer

For the fourth straight year, the level of software piracy in the Philippines remained at 69 percent in 2010, but losses linked to the use of unlicensed software ballooned to $278 million from $217 million the year before.

The 8th Annual Global Software Piracy Study, conducted by the Business Software Alliance and International Data Corp., showed that the value of dollar losses connected to software piracy in the country had grown steadily from only $147 million in 2007 to $278 million last year.

The rise in dollar losses, however, had more to do with the rise in personal computer shipments to the country than the lack of efforts to curb piracy, BSA Asia-Pacific senior director for marketing Roland Chan said.