U.S. Software Piracy Losses At $2.9 Billion

Ten major metropolitan areas in the U.S. were responsible for more than $1 billion of losses to software piracy in 1998, according to the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).SIIA unveiled its list of Americaís ""most wanted"" metropolitan areas with the release of its 1999 Annual Global Piracy Report. The report estimates that a total of $2.9 billion was lost to software piracy throughout the U.S. during 1998, and that 85 countries were responsible for losses totaling $11 billion worldwide.Heading the SIIA list was the New York metropolitan area, with an estimated $259 million of piracy losses in 1998. The Los Angeles metropolitan area was next with $159 million, followed by Chicago with more than $112 million in losses. The remaining seven metropolitan areas on the SIIA list in descending order of losses were Washington-Baltimore, Boston-Nashua, San Francisco-Oakland, Philadelphia-Wilmington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit-Ann Arbor, and Atlanta. The SIIAís Top 10 Most Wanted Metropolitan Areas list will be released annually to highlight the seriousness of software piracy throughout the U.S.""Software piracy is a crime,"" said SIIA President Ken Wasch. ""Our report estimates that one in every four business software applications in use across the United States is an illegal copy. Knowingly or unknowingly, hundreds of companies are engaged in criminal activity every day the moment their employees boot up their computers. This is unacceptable.""Of SIIAís 1,400 member companies, 60 percent have annual revenues of less than $2 million. ""Software piracy can put those companies ñ and their employees ñ out of business and out of work within a matter of weeks,"" Wasch said.