Australian Piracy Rates Among Lowest In The World

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, today welcomed the latest industry figures that show Australia's internationally low software piracy rate is dropping fast.

The Business Software Association (BSA), an international software industry group, today announced figures that show that Australia's estimated software piracy rate dropped from 33 per cent to 27 per cent; a drop of 6 per cent since the last study.

Australia had an estimated rate that was amongst the lowest of the 85 countries surveyed - lower than Canada, France and Japan, among many others. This was a very good result, especially when Australia was compared with markets-such as the UK and US-that are considerably larger and have greater access, competition and choice.

This significant reduction in software piracy is evidence that Australia's enforcement regime, including recent digital reforms giving copyright owners stronger enforcement tools against digital piracy, is working well.

Today's BSA figures also confirm the strong evidence that parallel importation is unrelated to piracy. New Zealand has experienced decreasing piracy levels since parallel importation was introduced there in 1998-34 per cent in 1997, 32 per cent in 1998, 31 per cent in 1999, 28 per cent in 2000 and 26 per cent in the latest figures.

The Government is firmly committed to extending parallel importation to software and books so that consumers can benefit from lower prices and increased choice, just as they have benefited from lower prices as a result of the removal of restrictions on CDs.

Australia's drop in software piracy rates, while some other countries rates continue to rise, indicates the measures put in place by the Government are having an effect and demonstrates the Government's ongoing commitment to a strong and effective copyright regime.

11 June 2002

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