A sign of the times
Poland's rate of software piracy has fallen for the third year running, according the Global Software Piracy Study by IT-market analysis firm IDC. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is only falling at the rate of one percentage point per year. Moreover, despite this gradual drop, around 57 percent of all software installed in Poland last year was pirated.
"It's the third year in row that we are experiencing a one-percentage-point decrease ... but the gap between Poland and the top 10 countries is still large," said Bartłomiej Witucki, a spokesperson for Business Software Alliance (BSA) Polska, a daughter company of IDC.
The average rate of piracy in the EU stands at 36 percent, while the US - ranked in first place - has a piracy rate of 21 percent. Most Western European countries are listed with rates of less than 30 percent. The report also stressed that the financial damage caused by illegal software is rising. It is estimated that in Poland these costs increased by 25 percent, or $100 (zł.278) million, during the course of 2006.
Witucki blames a number of factors for the high piracy rate in Poland. For one, the growing number of computer and internet (especially broadband) users gives more people access to illegal software. Another factor is the social acceptance of piracy. "In Poland, stealing intellectual property is widely seen as a lesser theft," Witucki points out. He also complained about the ineffectiveness of the justice system with regards to piracy issues.
However, Witucki sees cause for hope. "The end of the 10th Anniversary Stadium is good news," he said, referring to the soon-to-be demolished home of Warsaw's infamous Stadion bazaar. He also noted that economic growth and higher living standards tend to be linked to decreasing piracy.
"China's example shows that piracy can be significantly decreased," Witucki claims. In China the rate decreased from 92 percent in 2003 to 82 percent in 2006, and Witucki hopes that this rate of reduction could be repeated in Poland. "According to IDC estimates, around 32,000 new workplaces could be created if our piracy rate went down by 10 percentage points," he concludes.
