China's 2009 Software Piracy Sees Slight Improvement
Sohu IT, 5/11/10
The "2009 Annual Report on Piracy Rates in the Chinese Software Industry" was approved and issued recently, releasing figures for piracy prevalence in the Chinese software industry. The annual report was commissioned from ChinaLabs.com and CYLabs by the State Intellectual Property Office; the new report marks the fifth year of the ongoing study.
The results of the 2009 Annual Report show that overall piracy (as calculated by the number of installations of commercial software in a given year) fell from 2008's 47% to 45%.
The main reasons for the drop in piracy rates were: stronger measures taken to protect and oversee IPR rights for software products; near-universal pre-loading of licensed software on computers by PC manufacturers; mainstream software makers, led by Microsoft, adopting low-price sales strategies; the rapid spread of free software applications, represented by Kingsoft (3888.HK) WPS and 360 Safe Guard; the convenience offered to customers by an increasing diversity in software sales channels; and increasing numbers of legitimate software licenses reducing the number of multiple installations.
The 2009 Report also notes that:
1) The total value of pirated software, as determined by market prices, is RMB 128.9 bln - roughly the same as last year.
2) The increase in ownership of legitimately licensed software has led to a decrease in new installations of commercial software and an extension in the "life cycle" of installed software. 123.67 mln computers were in use in 2009; per-computer software installations increased slightly over 2008, growing from an average of 5.44 installations to 5.74.
Keywords: national statistics piracy software SIPO
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