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A survey conducted by the Business Software Alliance shows that one out of every three software programs that people use around the world is pirated.

The survey showed that the global piracy rate decreased by one percentage point last year, but piracy related losses grew $4 billion as the software industry grew.

"These losses have a profound economic impact in countries around the world. Every copy of software used without proper licensing costs tax revenue, jobs, and growth opportunities for burgeoning software markets," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe had incredibly high amounts of piracy with rates ranging between 87 and 92% while the United States, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden, and the UK only ranged between 21 to 27%. The markets in these countries are much larger, however. Carrie Kirby of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:

Alliance President and CEO Robert Holleyman said efforts by the organization and by individual companies to stamp out piracy have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The efforts include education campaigns, assistance to law enforcement in criminal busts and lawsuits.

"Year to year, we may not see the kind of progress we would like," Holleyman said. But the piracy situation is much better now than it was in the mid-1980s when the alliance was formed, he said. At that time, more than half of all software in use was illegal.

"Clearly the global software industry is many billions of dollars larger today than it would have been had the rates of piracy we saw back in the '80s and '90s continued," said he Holleyman.

Research firm IDC compiled all of the numbers in the Alliance's survey. They conducted interviews in 23 countries and used sales statistics. The study has only been conducted for two years now.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.