REDUCTION OF 10 PERCENTAGE POINTS IN SOFTWARE PIRACY RATE CAN INJECT US$1.01 BLN INTO ECONOMY

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 6 (Bernama) -- Reducing the country's software piracy rate by
10 percentage points would inject RM3.2 billion (US$1.01 billion) (US$1=RM31.4)
into the economy, says a study conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA)
and International Data Corp (IDC).

BSA senior director of marketing, Asia-Pacific, Roland Chan, said the study
also revealed that it would generate RM719 million in additional taxes and
create 3,452 new jobs for Malaysia by 2013.

"Reducing software piracy is an opportunity to boost the economy.

"We are optimistic this can be achieved in Malaysia, given the unwavering
support of the government, particularly the Ministry of Domestic Trade,
Cooperatives and Consumerism," he told a media briefing here Monday.

He said the ministry's Gerak Gempur Cetak Rompak, an anti-piracy campaign
launched earlier this year, was a clear testament of the government's
commitment.

Chan said the study clearly showed that aggressively fighting software
piracy meant greater economic benefits in future, and not just for the software
industry, but the entire nation.

In 2009, he said, the software piracy rate or the installation of unlicensed
software in personal computers in the country was at 58 per cent.

"This means almost six out of 10 software programs installed on personal
computers in the country were pirated," he said.

He said the commercial value of pirated software in the country was valued
at RM1.4 billion.

The BSA-IDC study looked at 13 economies across Asia-Pacific namely,
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Chan said, reducing personal computer software
piracy by 10 percentage points in four years would inject almost US$41 billion
into the region's economy, create 350,000 new jobs and generate close to US$9
billion in new tax revenues for the governments.

-- BERNAMA