70% of computer users in Greece admit they have acquired pirated software, reports the Business Software Alliance in the 2011 BSA Global Software Piracy Study.
38% of Greek participants in the survey declared that they pirate software “occasionally,” “all of the time” or “most of the time,” while 32 percent say they’ve done it only rarely.
Every year since 2007, piracy percentages in Greece increase steadily. In 2010, this rate was 59% but in 2011 it has risen to 61%. The commercial losses of this software piracy was 247 million euros during 2011.
The data ranks Greece in third of the top five European Union countries with the highest rates. First is Bulgaria (64%), then Romania (63%) and Greece is followed by Latvia and Lithuania (both with 54%) and Poland (53%).
The total European rates show a piracy decrease, though, standing at 33% for 2011, that is 2% less than the previous year.
“If 70% of respondents in Greece admitted they shoplift – even rarely – authorities would react immediately to address the problem. Software piracy demands a similar response; intensive public education and awareness initiatives and law enforcement activities when appropriate,” said Marina Anogiati, Chair of the Business Software Alliance Committee in Greece.
Governmental organizations in Greece are working towards the same direction. Hellenic Police established the Cyber Crime Unit to fight software policy.
Globally, the most frequent software thieves are young and male, and it is more likely to live in emerging economies than in a mature one (38 to 15%).
As for the study itself, this is the ninth annual survey of global software piracy conducted by BSA. It included 15,000 computer users in 33 countries who represent 82% of the global PC market.
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