Azerbaijan, Baku, May 13 / Trend H. Valiyev /
Based on an annual report compiled by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) using the International Data Corporation (IDC) research for 2010, software piracy in Azerbaijan remained unchanged, maintaining a level of 88 percent.
Azerbaijan ranks tenth in the BSA report this year. It ranked eighth in the previous report.
Azerbaijan has recorded a sustainable improvement of pirated software-use in recent years. If the piracy rate was 94 percent in 2006, the figure fell to 92 percent in 2007, 90 percent in 2008 and 88 percent in 2009.
BSA analysis shows that an annual 2 percent average decline of piracy in Azerbaijan has been observed over the last four years.
The commercial value of illegal software used in Azerbaijan is $57 million or $5 million more than in 2009.
The BSA 2010 Global Software Piracy Study covers all types of software installed in personal computers, desktops, laptops and ultra-portable systems, including netbooks.
The commercial value of illegal software used in Azerbaijan increased by $7.4 billion in 2010, up to $58.8 billion.
First place in the ranking of countries with high levels of pirated software (out of 116 countries) goes to Georgia at 93 percent, second to Zimbabwe at 91 percent and third to Bangladesh at 90 percent. The level of the pirated software in Moldova hit 90 percent, Armenia - 89 percent and Belarus - 88 percent.
According to the BSA report, the reduction of computer piracy was fixed in 51 countries. Software piracy has increased in 15 markets. In general, the level of software piracy worldwide declined by one percent up to 42 percent in 2009.
The U.S., Japan and Luxembourg have the lowest piracy rate in the world. About 20 percent falls to these countries.
The level of computer piracy in Brazil, Russia, India and China is 71 percent and 35 percent in the European Union.