

Software piracy rate by country - U.S. lowest, at 20% - DabAsteroid
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

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mixmax
It seems there is a very strong correlation between software piracy and GDP
per capita. This may point to a cause for software piracy, namely that many
people simply can't afford the software they need or want.

In Armenia buying Microsift office would set you back roughly 1.2 months pay.
(rough numbers here: office $500, Armenian GDP per capita $4900 according to
wikipedia)

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silentbicycle
This reminds me of how international editions of books are sold at discount
rates to match local economies. Also, DVD region encoding. There doesn't seem
to be any equivalent for commercial software.

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reazalun
If that is true, I'll start questioning why the price of the DVD LOTR Trilogy
Extended Editon here, costs us around a third of average monthly salary.

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silentbicycle
There are other factors at play.

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metatronscube
Everything in the US is a lot cheaper too, I'm not surprised then that people
decide to actually buy the software.

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jeffool
Curious if anyone has any numbers for software piracy historically speaking?
We'll forever be hearing how piracy is destroying companies, so one has to
wonder how current piracy rates stack up against previous years.

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silentbicycle
Historically speaking, software piracy has skyrocketed since the nineteenth
century CE.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware#1...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware#1801:_punched_card_technology))

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DabAsteroid
_DEFINITION: The piracy rate is the total number of units of pirated software
deployed in 2007 divided by the total units of software installed.

SOURCE: Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study _

The ten countries at either end of 107 listed:

    
    
      #  1   Armenia:        93%   
      #  2   Moldova:        92%   
      #  3   Azerbaijan:     92%   
      #  4   Bangladesh:     92%   
      #  5   Zimbabwe:       91%   
      #  6   Sri Lanka:      90%   
      #  7   Yemen:          89%   
      #  8   Libya:          88%   
      #  9   Venezuela:      87%   
      # 10   Iraq:           85%  
    
      # 98   Switzerland:    25%   
      # 99   Austria:        25%   
      #100   Denmark:        25%   
      #101   Belgium:        25%   
      #102   Sweden:         25%   
      #103   Finland:        25%   
      #104   Japan:          23%   
      #105   New Zealand:    22%   
      #106   Luxembourg:     21%   
      #107   United States:  20%   
      
      Weighted average:      59.9%

