Worldwide Software Piracy $7.4 Billion in 1993
A Huge Problem for the Industry, Says SPA

March 28, 1994 (Washington, DC) - The Software Publishers Association (SPA)
announced today that in 1993 worldwide losses to piracy of business
application software totalled $7.45 billion. That revenue loss figure only
reflects losses to the software industry. It does not include revenues
lost to distribution channels or Value Added Tax (VAT), sales and other
taxes lost by governments, nor does it reflect losses to consumer
application publishers or publishers of operating systems.

Western countries lead the world in the magnitude of revenues lost in 1993.
The United States had the largest dollar loss, at $1.57 billion. Japan, at
$650 million had the second largest dollar loss. France, with $435
million, had the third largest dollar loss in 1993. The Germany/Austria
region, at $372 million, was the only other region to report losses in
excess of $300 million in 1993.

Although the Western countries led in the size of the loss in 1993, the
piracy rates in the emerging economies far exceeded those in most of the
industrialized world. India/Pakistan had the highest piracy rate, at 95%,
with Korea and Brazil at 89%, Malaysia at 88%, and Taiwan and Mexico at
82% in 1993. At 79%, the Iberian region (Spain and Portugal) had the
highest piracy rate in Western Europe. Italy showed dramatic improvements
in 1993, as the piracy rate fell from 86% in 1992 to a still high but
better 61% in 1993.

In most markets where 1992 and 1993 data were available, both the rate of
piracy and the revenues lost to piracy fell between 1992 and 1993. Some of
the decline in revenue loss can be attributed to the 25 to 45% decline in
average prices for business applications in most markets. The SPA's
analysis showed that, despite the decline in total revenue loss to piracy,
the total number of applications pirated actually increased by about 1.5%
in 1993. But, that was below the industry's overall unit sales growth of
about 37%.

"In 1993, the personal computer software industry lost $7.4 billion due to
piracy of business applications," said SPA Research Director David
Tremblay. "To put our industry's losses in perspective, the United States'
sales of recorded music totaled $9 billion in 1992!."

"Software piracy is a global problem," said SPA Executive Director Ken
Wasch. "Our efforts in the United States have been successful in reducing
the industry's loss to piracy from $2 to 3 billion in 1990 and 1991, to
$1.7 and $1.57 billion in the most recent years. But, as our analysis
shows, the industry's loss on a global basis continues to be staggering.
For this reason, we are expanding our anti-piracy activities into a number
of international markets. We recently took action against software pirates
in Singapore, and plan to expand our activities into other markets in the
Far East, Latin America and Europe this year."

The results excerpted in this release are from the SPA's Global Report on
Software Piracy, an SPA study on global piracy and intellectual property
product use in international markets expected to be available in June,
1994. For more information on the publication, contact the SPA.

The Software Publishers Association is the principal trade association of
the PC software industry. Its more than 1,100 members represent the
leading publishers in the business, consumer, and education markets. The
SPA has offices in Washington, DC, and Paris, France.

Software Publishers Association
1730 M St, Northwest, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036
202-452-1600,  Fax: 202-223-8756

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product Information'  Electronic News Service
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the
 above mentioned company. For additional details, contact 
 the company at the address or telephone number indicated.
 OmniPage Pro is now used for converting all printed input! 
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
