On the Extent of Piracy in Russia in 2011.

According to the data of BSA, in 2011 over a half of computer users in the world (57%) say that they used pirated software, including 31% of computer users who use such software "always", "mostly" or "occasionally", while the remaining 26% of computer users said that they used unlicensed software rather rarely. Less than four users in ten (38%) stated in relevant questionnaires that they never bought software which was not fully licensed (except for free software).

In Russia, the situation does not differ much from the worldwide average, at least in the past few years. So, in 2011 about 63% of all the computer users utilized unlicensed software. It is to be noted that the share of piracy in this country goes down year by year. According to the data of BSA, in 2007 the extent of piracy amounted to 73%, in 2008 - to 68%, in 2009 - to 67% and in 2010 - to 65%. In 2011, as regards that index Russia stands close to the average value which is specific to all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (about 62%).

The lowest volume of unlicensed software worldwide is used in the USA (19%), Luxemburg (20%), Japan (21%) and New Zealand (22%). It is to be noted that as regards the volume of pirated software in absolute terms the USA is rated first in the world ($9.7bn), China - the second ($8.9bn), and Russia - the third ($3.2bn). In money terms, the volumes of unlicensed software used in Russia go down, too: in the 2007-2008 period the annual market of pirated software was estimated by BSA at $4.1bn to $4.2bn.

 

It is worth mentioning that the BSA data on the extent of piracy in different countries is based on different social surveys and expert evaluations and for that reason it cannot be used for accurate estimates. However, it can be utilized with discretion in analysis of the dynamics of changes in indices or positions of individual countries in the global rating.

 

V.А. Kotsyubinsky, Researcher of the Innovation Economics Department