GDP Per Capita and Software Piracy · 498 words posted 01/10/2004 12:11 PM
As I’ve said previously, I believe software piracy should be regarded as a development issue rather than a law enforcement problem. It’s useful to take a look at the relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita and the level of software piracy in a given country.
As you can see in the chart to the right, there’s a strong correlation between a country’s relative poverty and its level of software piracy: the poorer a country’s citizens, the more likely they are to use unlicensed software (when they use software at all). There are too many plot points on the x-axis to label all of the values on a small chart, but some of the countries at either end of the spectrum are:
- Vietnam, with a GDP per capita of US $410 and a piracy rate of 95% (in other words, 95% of the software in use in Vietnam is pirated)
- Indonesia, GDP per capita US $680, piracy rate 89%
- United States, GDP per capita US $35,200, piracy rate 23%
- Norway, GDP per capita US $37,020, piracy rate 32%
About the data:
- If you’re interested in the numbers, here’s my data for the chart in XML format.
- For GDP per capita, I used Pocket World in Figures, 2004 Edition, published by The Economist . I omitted countries for which the Economist reports GDP only in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This omission strikes me as reasonable, but I’ve cited my sources so you can run your own numbers.
- For piracy rates, I used the Business Software Alliance Global Software Piracy Study for 2003 (PDF). The BSA, consistent with its position that software piracy is solely a law enforcement issue, does not bother to post GDP numbers. One could argue that the BSA has an incentive to skew the piracy numbers—and its published methodology strikes me as pretty bogus—but I’ve accepted its figures at face value for purposes of this chart.
- The chart is generated dynamically with a licensed copy of the B-Line Express charting components.
Nick Bradbury recently wrote about attempting to price software by means. The post generated thoughtful reponses, both pro and con. By posting a chart comparing GDP per capita to software piracy rates, I do not mean to imply that “it’s fine to steal just because you’re poor.” Still, software companies may find greater success by localizing (on both price and language) than by pursuing legal remedies in foreign jurisdictions. What do you think?
UPDATE
One reader posted the following comment:
trying to find a linear relationship between GDP and piracy, imo, is neither here nor there… looking at the demogs, take vietnam and usa for example..
if (vienam.getPopulation() * 95/100 == usa.getPopulation() * 23/100)
System.println("You get my drift?");
My response:
The point I think you are making with your DemogScript is “Look at the absolute number of pirated items in a given country, not the ratio of pirated items to licensed items.” By that measure, the United States is a much worse piracy offender than Vietnam, even though it has a lower rate of piracy.
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