The pirated software market had a commercial value of €10,376 million in the EU in 2011, a study published by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said, on 15 May ⁽¹⁾.

In the UK, Italy, Germany and France, this market has passed the billion euro mark, and has reached €45,619 million globally. The study shows that the net rate of pirated software (without a licence) reaches 33%; half of the polled users admitted to having had pirated software.

Thomas Boué, director for government affairs across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the SBA said that the EU’s current “harmful” rules clearly need to be revised and that the EU’s policy makers are faced with an important challenge, which is to modernise the framework of intellectual property rights (IPR). In June, the Commission is set to propose a revision of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

As well as modernising EU law, the BSA recommends modernising protections for software and other protected works, reinforcing the application of intellectual property rights rules – starting with the respect of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

The study was carried out in 116 markets, and is based on the assessment of PC and software trends. Some 15,000 computer users were also surveyed in 33 countries.

⁽¹⁾ ‘2011 BSA global software piracy study’ available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 314332