Software piracy rate for PCs dropped to 62 percent last year

Newsroom 23/09/2014 | 17:03

The PC software piracy rate in Romania has dropped by 1 percent in 2013, from 63 percent to 62 percent in 2011, due to actions for preventing this phenomenon, according to an IDC survey, quoted by Mediafax newswire.

“IDC believes the dynamism of the PC market in Romania- the growth in the number of PCs brought and installed by consumers, has led to a situation on the market in which, in the absence of enough anti-piracy efforts, the piracy rate at the level of the country would have increased by 2-4 percent between 2011 and 2013,” according to an IDC survey presented on Tuesday by Business Software Alliance (BSA) during a press conference.

Thus, in Romania, at a 62 percent rate of using unlicensed software, the rate at which the malware is found on PCs was 30.79 percent at the end of last year, compared to 27.5 percent in September 2013.

IDC estimated that USD 19 billion could be spent this year only by companies in Central and Eastern Europe to eradicate the consequences of malware on pirated software, for identifying, repairing and data recovery, while non-authorized leaks of business and confidential data could cost companies in the region USD 39 billion.

According to BSA, in the first 8 months of the year, the police carried out 400 actions for preventing crime in the domain of intellectual property.

“As a result of these actions, 200 crimes were discovered related to software products, approximately 1,000 IT systems were disabled as well as storage systems. The value of damages demanded by the copyright owners totaled approximately EUR 1 million,” said Alexandru Catalin Ionita, the Director of the Direction of Investigating Frauds in the IGPR (Romanian Police General Inspectorate).

During September 2013- June 2014, IGPR and BSA have initiated an awareness campaign that have targeted a total of 53,562 companies, of which over 6,600 have received individual consultancy to clarify the questions connected to software licenses, and over 2,600 have drafted a software audit.

Otilia Haraga

BR Magazine | Latest Issue

Download PDF: Business Review Magazine March (II) 2024 Issue

The March (II) 2024 issue of Business Review Magazine is now available in digital format, featuring the main cover story titled “BAT DBS Romania Hub: A Vibrant New Office For An Employee-Centric
Newsroom | 27/03/2024 | 17:32
Advertisement Advertisement
Close ×

We use cookies for keeping our website reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used.

Accept & continue