"The 72% rate puts the Philippines among the 10 highest in the region. It shows that software piracy continues to be a major problem in the country. If not reduced significantly, it would continue to be detrimental to the development of the ICT industry and of the Philippine economy as a whole," said Ronald Chua, chair of the BSA Philippines Committee.

Conducted for the first time by global technology research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), this year’s BSA global piracy study incorporated major software market segments including operating systems, consumer software and local market software. In previous years, the study was limited to business software applications.

The inclusion of these new categories paints a broader, more accurate picture of the global software piracy problem based on IDC’s extensive industry and market knowledge. The study found that, while US$80 billion dollars in software was installed on computers worldwide last year, only US$51 billion was legally purchased.

Aside from corporate end-user piracy as among the most damaging form of software piracy, Chua also noted the rising cases of P2P file-sharing sites, mail order or auction sites through the Internet. "The emerging threat of software piracy on the Internet may potentially drive piracy higher in the future," said Chua.

Meanwhile, the new study reveals that Asia Pacific is the region with the fourth highest software piracy rate and the second highest revenue losses in the world. With a total of 53 percent piracy rate and US$7.5 billion, three of the four countries with the highest piracy rates in the world are in Asia Pacific including Vietnam and China.

"Economies in the Asia Pacific region are still confronted with the challenge of combating software piracy and it is in the interest of governments in the region to drive down software piracy," said Jeffrey Hardee, Vice President and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, BSA.

"We remain optimistic that software piracy rate in the Philippines will go down with continuous cooperation between the government and various industry groups. We also call on private organizations to adopt a software asset management policy to avoid software license misuse," said Chua.

"Piracy continues to be a significant problem through Asia Pacific, as evidenced by the region’s representation among the world’s piracy leaders," added Martin Kralik, senior research manager for Asia Pacific consulting at IDC. "Unfortunately, this same piracy is also hurting the region’s competitiveness. The revenues that are lost to piracy are vital to the success and survival of smaller, local software developers and that ultimately undermines the region’s ability to develop new products and compete in the global market."

The study also found that software piracy tends to be high in those markets with high PC market growth, such as China and India, and that if the piracy rate in these emerging markets does not drop, the worldwide piracy rate would continue to increase.

"There is still much to be done in the fight for strong intellectual property protection and respect for copyrighted works in the region," said Hardee. "BSA will continue to work with governments across Asia Pacific to encourage them to enact policies to protect software intellectual property and to implement programs to educate businesses and consumers about the importance of copyright protection for creative works. Lowering the piracy rate will stimulate local economic activity, generate government revenue, create job growth and cultivate future innovation."

For its analysis, IDC drew upon its worldwide data for software and hardware shipments, conducted more than 5,600 interviews in 15 countries, and used its in-country analysts around the globe to evaluate local market conditions. IDC identified the piracy rate and dollar losses by utilizing proprietary IDC models for PC, software and license shipments by all industry vendors in 86 countries.