Expatica news

A third of Belgian software ‘pirated’

8 July 2004

BRUSSELS – Just under a third of all software currently being used in Belgium is pirated according to a new software industry study, it was reported on Thursday.

The report was drawn up by a US consultancy for the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents software industry giants like Microsoft and Adobe.

It found that 29 percent of software applications being used in Belgium today are illegal pirate copies.

But the bad news for the software industry is that Belgium actually has one of the European Union’s lowest levels of software piracy.

Only Austria and Sweden (27 percent) and Denmark (26 percent) have less illegal software in circulation.

According to the study, the average amount of illegal software in use in the Union is 37 percent.

In Greece however, which tops the EU’s illegal software blacklist, 63 percent of all software used is pirated.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news