BSA defends its research

20.06.2005
Von Nicolas Callegari

An article published by The Economist recently (Entitled "BSA or just BS?") has revealed that the Business Software Alliance"s (BSA"s) stats on the economic effects of software piracy may be flawed.

In its annual study of software piracy worldwide, the BSA said that up to 35 percent of the software installed worldwide is pirated, and that this had resulted in a US$33 billion loss to the industry.

According to a posting on Corante.com, while the economic affect on software companies is still very real, it may not be as bad as the BSA is making it out to be.

The argument against the BSA"s methodologies, says The Economist, is that the lobby group"s data relies heavily on sample groups that may not be representative, assumptions about the average amount of software on PCs, and guesses rather than hard data.

"They dubiously presume that each piece of software pirated equals a direct loss of revenue to software firms," the article says.

In a response to The Economist, John Gantz, chief research officer of IDC, the company that conducted research for the BSA, said there is nothing "dodgy" about the data used in the study.

"As I explained to [The Economist"s] reporter, the basic inputs to the piracy rates are derived from IDC"s in-country research on the PC and software markets conducted by IDC analysts resident in over 50 countries. With almost all major IT vendors scrutinizing our market statistics on an ongoing basis, IDC"s market numbers are recognized as the gold standard in the industry," he says.

According to Gantz, the reporter also neglected to mention the long discussion he and Gantz had about the independent research which IDC conducted to verify that the value of pirated software equates to real losses.

Beth Scott, London-based vice-president for the BSA in EMEA, adds that the implication that any industry would purposely inflate the rate of piracy and its impact to suit its political aims is ridiculous. "The problem is a reality and needs no exaggeration," she says.

Scott adds that the presumption that software piracy helps the industry is easily refuted. "Piracy does not, by its nature, increase software sales," she says. "It is an illegal activity, which reduces investment in R&D and slows innovation.

"It is disappointing that [people] choose to undermine this serious issue and the important work of the industry in tackling it," Scott concludes.