The commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in Jordan reached a value of $28 million in 2010 as 57 per cent of software deployed on PCs during the year was pirated, said a report.

Piracy affects businesses by causing data loss due to corrupted files and viruses as well as legal liabilities for not complying with the Kingdom’s comprehensive copyright law, according to the findings of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010 Global Software Piracy Study, which evaluates the state of software piracy around the world.

“These findings show that while some progress has been made in reducing the software piracy rate in Jordan there is still much more work to be done,” said Sana Jaser, BSA spokesperson. “The further we reduce software piracy, the better it will be for the Jordanian economy.”

Reducing software piracy in Jordan provides the country with various opportunities that include attracting local and foreign investment, creating more highly paid jobs, contributing to the socio-economic welfare of the country and creating a level playing field for businesses to compete fairly whilst focusing on providing customers the best value.

Jordan has witnessed a steady decline in software piracy rates since 2003, managing to reduce piracy below the regional average.

Local anti-piracy efforts, led by the Department of the National Library under director general Mamoun Talhouni and his team, have been the major contributor in increasing Intellectual Property awareness amidst businesses and educational facilities and combating piracy.

Talhouni said: “One of these efforts is cooperation with international organizations such as BSA and Wipo in organising workshops and seminars dedicated to anti-piracy efforts. In this regards and in cooperation with BSA and Wipo respectively, the First Regional IPR and Cyber Crime Conference and the National Workshop on Copyright and Related Rights in the Internet Environment were held in Amman in 2010.”

“The two activities emphasized on combating software piracy and piracy in the digital environment. On the other hand, the department in its enforcement efforts, transferred 3626 cases to the competent general prosecutors 581 in 2010 and 112 from the beginning of this year, some of the cases were concerning software piracy.”

“The department is always ready to cooperate with software producers and calling them to take action against piracy on their products by filing a complaint at copyright office in the department.”

This is the eighth study of global software piracy to be conducted by BSA in partnership with IDC, the IT industry’s leading market research and forecasting firm, using a methodology that incorporates 182 discrete data inputs for 116 countries and regions around the world.

This year’s study also includes a new dimension: a public-opinion survey of PC users on key social attitudes and behaviors related to software piracy, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs.

The opinion survey found strong support for intellectual property rights, with seven in 10 respondents expressing support for paying inventors for their creations to promote more technology advances. Strikingly, support for intellectual property rights was strongest in markets with high piracy rates.

The survey also found widespread recognition that licensed software is better than pirated software, because it is understood to be more secure and more reliable.

The problem is many PC users lack a clear understanding of whether common ways of acquiring software, such as buying a single program license for multiple computers or downloading a program from a peer-to-peer network, are likely to be legal or illegal, the survey added. – TradeArabia News Service