BSA 2010 Piracy Report: $58.8 Billion

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."

Comments

Boy Scouts of America?

[kmdrtako]

Considering that the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) was able to make the World Wrestling Federation change their name, you'd think that the Boy Scouts of America could do the same to the Business Software Alliance.

A quick check of TESS at uspto.gov shows many other registrations of BSA, but I never see those. (And don't bother to tell me about scoutings, i.e. BSA's, problems. I know all about them, and despite them, scouting is still doing plenty of other good things.)