The rate of business software piracy in the US has risen slightly during the past year, according to a new study released yesterday by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). One quarter of all software is pirated in the country.

The study, conducted by the International Planning & Research Corp. analysed piracy in each US state, by comparing estimates of software applications installed with estimates of applications that were legally shipped .

It found that software piracy rate in 2001 was 25%, comparing to 24% in 2000. The state with the highest piracy rate was Mississippi, with 48%, whilst New York had the lowest rate, with 11.9%.

According to the BSA, software piracy last year cost the US $1.8 billion in retail sales of business software applications and more then 111,000 jobs.

Another BSA study released in June revealed that the rate of software piracy in the UK dropped by 1%, also to 25%.

The BSA recommends that businesses should take measures to ensure legal use of software, such as adopting a corporate policy on compliance with copyright laws, auditing computer companies and educating management and employees of their obligations under the law.

The BSA study on US business software piracy in 2001 can be found at:
www.bsa.org/piracystudy

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