Reducing piracy to generate 44,000 IT jobs

New Delhi

March 20th, 2008

Reducing software piracy in India by ten percent over the next four years can
generate an additional 44,000 new jobs, $3.1 billion in economic growth, and
$200 million in tax revenues, according to a study released today by the
Business Software Alliance (BSA).

The study predicts an additional $208 million in revenues to local vendors
alone.

Further, reducing software piracy in Asia by just ten percentage points can
generate 435,000 new jobs, over $40 billion in economic growth, and over $5
billion in tax revenues above current projections, the study revealed.

The study commissioned by BSA and conducted independently by IDC, notes that
the information technology industry is already a major contributor to Asian
economies. In 2007, Asian economies spent over $231 billion on IT goods and
services including computers, peripherals, network equipment, packaged software
and IT services. That spending supported more than 348,000 IT companies with 5.5
million IT industry employees, and helped generate $167 billion in IT-related
taxes.

While the Asia region has much to gain from reductions in PC software piracy,
high-piracy emerging economies like China, Russia and India could experience
some of the most positive impacts, the International Data Corporation (IDC)
study suggests.

Yet the IT sector's contribution to Asian economies would be even greater if
the region's PC software piracy rate could be lowered by ten percentage points
by 2011, the study said.

Such an improvement would add highly skilled jobs to the labor force, support
the creation of new companies, lower business risks, and fund government
services without a tax increase.

Moreover, reducing software piracy has a "multiplier effect."
According to IDC, for every $1 spent on legitimate packaged software, an
additional $1.25 is spent on related services from local vendors such as
installing the software, training personnel and providing maintenance services.

Jeffrey J. Hardee, VP and regional director, Asia Pacific, BSA, said,
"However, out of an estimated $21 billion worth of PC software being
employed in new computers in the Asia-Pacific region in 2006, $11.6 billion was
deemed to have been pirated. This study clearly shows the huge economic benefits
that economies would derive from a ten-point drop in PC software piracy over the
course of the next four years."

The study included 42 economies, collectively representing 91 per cent of the
entire global IT sector. Of these, 11 were Asian economies whose IT sector
represents 94 per cent of the total IT sector size of the region.