BSA calls 2009 a "good year" in anti-piracy

[Guild McCommunist]

The seventh annual report on piracy is now available, with the Business Software Alliance and IDC Global Software calling 2009 a "good year in the fight against software piracy."

The report (via GamePolitics) estimates that piracy rose two percentage points from 2008 to 2009, moving up to 43 percent. However, the overall value of unlicensed software dipped three percent.

Eastern Europe remains the region with the highest instance of piracy at 64 percent. The Eastern European nation Georgia also has the highest piracy rate at 95 percent.

The U.S. has the lowest piracy rate at 20 percent, with North America as a whole sitting at 21 percent. Piracy numbers across the regions have remained relatively stable between 2008 and 2009. The report noted that the installation of unlicensed software on PC dropped in 54 of the 111 individual economies.

The report noted that forces driving up piracy include the rapid growth of the consumer PC market and the "increasing sophistication of online criminals."

The industry continues to vigorously pursue pirates. Nintendo is suing a flash cart distributor, and publishers like Ubisoft have implemented sometimes controversial DRM schemes. However, as the report shows, piracy remains a problem in regions such as Eastern Europe and Asia.

The report recommends that piracy be combatted with increased education, the implementation of the WIPO copyright treaty, stronger copyright laws and more rigid enforcement.

Source

The thing that stuck out was "The report recommends that piracy be combatted with increased education, the implementation of the WIPO copyright treaty, stronger copyright laws and more rigid enforcement." Yeah, piracy isn't like drugs. It's not something you teach. People don't do it because they want to be cool or are just dipshits, they do it because it's free shit. And kids love free shit. Also, more copyright shit makes me

 

[Bladexdsl]

lol piracy is down aye? have they even bothered to check the wiis piracy rate?

 

[Destructobot]

The report (via GamePolitics) estimates that piracy rose two percentage points from 2008 to 2009, moving up to 43 percent.
...
The Eastern European nation Georgia also has the highest piracy rate at 95 percent.
...
The U.S. has the lowest piracy rate at 20 percent, with North America as a whole sitting at 21 percent.

Percent of what? Did they survey pirates?

100% of made up statistics are made up.

 

[heavyknight]

Ahahaha...Europe and Asia.
The reason Europe has so much piracy is because they get slammed with crappy shovelware half of the time, and all the good games take forever. JP -> US is, sometimes 6-8 months or more, US -> EU is 4 months to a year. Random guesses ftw. But, yeah... I'm pretty sure there are a lot of EU piraters who get NTSC U/J games that are good. IE Tales of series, PS2 games.

Asia on the other hand..well, primarily China (not being racist), flash carts, etc from there....also reminds me when looking through Sonic X, they managed to get a non-released few episodes of the uh...Metarex Saga. Just an example of China and stuffs.

Did not expect North America to have the second lowest. Or be low, for that matter.

As for.. "increased education, the implementation of the WIPO copyright treaty, stronger copyright laws and more rigid enforcement" -

More education? That's going to have the opposite effect, and not only affect piracy but everyone else.

US schools already seem to give out way too much homework as it is. I've heard numerous stories on it even affecting kids from, I think..kindergarten (That or 1st grade) to..well..pretty much through their school life.
It's afterschool -> HW -> dinner -> 3 or so hours of playtime -> sleep. The order and amount of playtime is questionable. (Every time I message someone on AIM or MSN, they generally give the excuse of busy, and homework. If I message them at 8PM after trying at 4PM, it might be slight free time and food, but then a little while later, it's back to homework.)

Copyright treaties..like that'd work. Piracy is simple. Wasting time and money, I suppose.

Stronger laws and enforcement, what're you gonna do, arrest every teen that downloaded some Rom or ISO? Good luck on that one. And fining them? Yes, make a 'family' company richer by taking away from people who aren't able to afford things. In that sense, the family company destroys families.

Plus reasons for pirating... I pirate stuff, mostly cause I don't have money. Get me an alternative for money making and I'd probably be more legal..(only those worth buying are..well..worth buying. Hell, they charge $20~$35 for shovelware (which some suckers actually buy..) and rentals is a lesser GameStop. I don't want to pay $40 for a port of a cheaper $10~$20 version.. Wii/PS2 stuff.)
Sometimes it's just..better. PAL games take forever, some are too expensive, free is sometimes good, etc.

@Above - already confused with U.S. and North America.

 

[weiHe]

I LOVE FREE SHIT