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BSA Says 41% of Software On Personal Computers Is Pirated

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-half-of-that-is-any-good dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Individuals are turning to P2P networks and auction sites in staggering numbers to acquire or transfer illegal software and in doing so are harming the economy whilst exposing themselves to malware, identity theft and criminal prosecution, according to a report from the Business Software Alliance. Beyond P2P and auction site piracy, the report also draws correlations between Internet piracy and the spread of malware such as viruses, trojans and spyware, which often exploit vulnerabilities in illegal software that does not benefit from security updates provided by manufacturers. Although the correlation is not universal, geographies with high instances of software piracy suffer from high instances of malware."

6 of 569 comments (clear)

  1. Two of the three letters in their name... by ValentineMSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    are true. We'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which.

    --
    Karma: Chameleon - mostly influenced by bad '80s New Wave music
    1. Re:Two of the three letters in their name... by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Funny

      "BS Alliance" doesn't sound right to you?

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    2. Re:Two of the three letters in their name... by Odin's+Raven · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm doing an informal survey of Godwin posts, [...]

      You know who else did informal surveys? Hitl-*whack* <OW!> *thud*

      --
      A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
  2. Oooooo pretty graph! by NoYob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Speaking as an MBA, their unsubstantiated numbers and pretty graphs is good enough for me. I'm going to delete 41% of the software on my machines to make sure I'm not a crook!

    --
    It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
  3. Bloat by rant64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The other 59% of disk space occupied by legal software consists entirely of Adobe Reader.

    --
    MMO Vampire Role Playing
  4. Re:41? by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    While you're guessing with such precision, why not choose 42% and grab more nerd eyes?

    Because pirating software is not the answer to life the universe and everything.