Hong Kong’s failure to control software piracy poses a major threat to the territory’s aim of becoming a regional information technology hub, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) claimed yesterday. According to a BSA study, a government crackdown last year reduced Hong Kong’s piracy rate from 67% to 59%, but that means more than half of all software in corporate use is still unauthorized.
BSA Asia Committee chairman Tom Robertson warned that Hong Kong’s piracy level is still out of line with the rates other developed countries. Last year piracy in the US and Japan stood at 25% and 30% respectively. A level of 59% is inconsistent with the government’s desire to develop Hong Kong as a technology hub. Something has to be done to address this problem, Robertson said.
Robertson believes that corporate end-users are the most serious offenders. Last year piracy caused a HK$11bn ($1.4bn) loss in Hong Kong to software developers, and more than half was due to illegal use of software in offices, he said.
