The commercial value of unlicensed
software installed on personal
computers in Eastern and Southern
Africa (ESA), which excludes South
Africa, reached $109 million in 2010 as
83 per cent of software deployed on
PCs during the year was pirated.
This stands at almost double the
global piracy rate for PC software,
which is 42 per cent, having risen by
3.6 points on the previous five year
average.
These are among the findings of the
Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010
Global Software Piracy Study, which
evaluates the state of software piracy
around the world.
During the past 5 years since 2006,
Botswana’s piracy rate has dropped
by 2 per cent; Kenya’s by just 1 per
cent; while Zimbabwe’s rose by one
per cent in 2008, but returned to the
2006 rate of 91 per cent in 2010.
Zambia’s piracy rate has remained
unchanged year over year. Meanwhile,
Zimbabwe’s piracy rate of 91 per cent
is the second highest in the world.
“These findings show that little
progress has been made in reducing
the software piracy rate in East and
Southern Africa and there is much
more work to be done,” said Dale
Waterman, chair, BSA Middle East and
Africa Committee, and also the
Microsoft’s Corporate Attorney for
Anti-Piracy for the Middle East and
Africa region.
“The further we reduce software
piracy, the better it will be for the
region’s economies.”
Globally, the opinion survey found
strong support for intellectual
property rights, with seven in 10
respondents expressing support for
paying inventors for their creations to
promote more technology advances.
Strikingly, support for intellectual
property rights was strongest in
markets with high piracy rates.
The survey also found widespread
recognition that licensed software is
better than pirated software, because
it is understood to be more secure
and more reliable.

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