BSA 2010 Piracy Report: $58.8 Billion 361
Glyn Moody writes "The annual BSA report on software piracy is out, with even bigger numbers: 'The commercial value of software piracy grew 14 percent globally last year to a record total of $58.8 billion.' Yes, they're using the old 'commercial value' trick: 'The commercial value of pirated software is the value of unlicensed software installed in a given year, as if it had been sold in the market.' Except, of course, that the main reason users in developing countries — the main focus of the report — resort to piracy is because they can't afford Western-style pricing. It's also fun to see the BSA trotting out the old 'reducing piracy would generate lots of new jobs and taxes for local governments' — except that it doesn't, because the money not paid for software licences does not disappear, but is just spent elsewhere in the local economy."
Re:reducing the BSA would generate the most jobs (Score:4, Informative)
Copying isn't stealing. Theft is not copyright infringement from a legal point of view either so the law agrees with me on this one.
Would you consider it wrong to replicate a loaf of bread?