Poll: What’s Your View On Software Piracy?

Today it was reported that Birmingham is the source of 15 percent of piracy reports in the UK, and has been named by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) as “an illegal software hotspot”. BSA, which campaigns against piracy on behalf of the commercial software industry, has started a three month campaign to stamp out software piracy in the city.

Following a somewhat lacklustre response to our last poll – exposing your shocking lack of knowledge and interest in the Carbon Reduction Commitment – we decided to return to the well-trodden ground of software piracy.

Cost of Piracy

Earlier this month BSA and IDC claimed the UK could be missing out on £5.4 billion in new economic activity by 2013 due to software piracy. Reducing software theft in the UK by 10 percent over four years would also create 13,011 jobs and £1.5 billion in new taxes, the report said – with 87 percent of those benefits expected to remain in the local economy.

“The impact of software piracy reaches beyond software publishers, starving local distributors and service providers of spending that creates jobs and generates more tax revenues, boosting the local economy,” said Michala Wardell, chair of the BSA UK Committee.

However, the findings of the report were met with widespread scepticism in the industry, with Andrew Robinson, leader of the UK Pirate Party, describing it as “transparent propaganda”. Research by Microsoft earlier this year found that one in eight British adults use pirated software at work, and more than half believe their employer would consider the practice acceptable.

So we want to know your views. If you were presented with an unlicensed copy of Microsoft Office by your boss, what would you do? (Don’t worry, your responses are completely anonymous).

Do you believe in piracy?

Do you agree with BSA’s argument that software piracy is robbing the industry of vital funding, and stunting innovation? Would this prompt you to report the pirated software to BSA and let the company suffer the consequences?

Or maybe you’d go a step further and report the incident directly to the police – software piracy is, after all, a criminal offence. But perhaps you think this is an issue for the software manufacturer to deal with themselves, so you would pass on the details quietly and feel satisfied you have done your bit.

On the other hand, there are plenty of civil liberties organisations who argue that copyright laws are outdated and call for further debate on the issues surrounding digital rights. For example, the Free Software Foundation advocates for free software ideals and works for adoption of free software and free media formats.

Maybe you agree that revenues from these essential software tools should not all be ending up in the hands of a few massive tech giants. Maybe you’d prefer to keep quiet about your company’s use of illegal software, or maybe you’d ask them for a copy for yourself. Of course, there’s always the blackmail option…

Let us know what you think by registering your vote in the poll on the left had side of the site. If none of the options apply then let us know what you think in the “other” box, and join the debate.