Thirty-five percent of the packaged software installed on PCs worldwide in 2005 was pirated, the same percentage as in 2004, according to a study released Tuesday by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).Global losses from software piracy, however, rose by US$1.6 billion, to $34 billion, according to BSA, a trade group focused on fighting the unauthorized use of software. Some economists have questioned the loss estimates in the annual study, prepared by IDC. The loss estimates reflect the total price users would have paid for legitimate versions of the pirated software, but in some cases, users may have decided not to use the software if they would have had to pay for it, Robert Holleyman, BSA’s president and chief executive officer, said recently. Holleyman applauded progress by some countries, but said “much more needs to be done.”While the amount of global piracy has not gone down, some countries, including China, Russia and India, have made progress, BSA said. The United States had the lowest piracy rate of all countries studied, 21 percent, but because of the size of the software market there, it posted the highest losses, $6.9 billion. China saw the second-highest losses at $3.9 billion with a piracy rate of 86 percent, followed by France with losses of $3.2 billion and a piracy rate of 47 percent, according to the study.The four countries with the largest drop in their piracy rates in the past year were Ukraine, down 6 percentage points, and China, Russia and Morocco, all down 4 percentage points, the study said. The countries with the highest piracy rates were Vietnam and Zimbabwe at 90 percent each, Indonesia at 87 percent, and China and Pakistan with 86 percent each. In addition to the United States, countries with the lowest piracy rates included New Zealand, Austria and Finland.-Grant Gross, IDG News ServiceCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content News Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including some at AWS The latest round of Amazon layoffs will impact AWS, Twitch, advertising and PXT, CEO Andy Jassy said. By Jon Gold Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost What’s next for network operations Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Serge Lucio, Vice President and General Manager, Agile Operations Division Mar 20, 2023 8 mins IT Leadership Networking BrandPost Digital transformation obstacles: Stubborn challenges, what to do about them Value Stream Management is an increasingly essential approach to strategic transformation initiatives. To help teams more fully capitalize on the opportunities it presents, Broadcom is holding its third annual VSM Summit. By Marla Schimke, Head of Product and Growth Marketing, Broadcom's Enterprise Software Division Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Devops Software Development Feature CEO directives: Top 5 initiatives for IT leaders As organizations change course with economic gyrations, collaboration between IT and business becomes priority No. 1 for CEOs. By Stacy Collett Mar 20, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe