Singapore  - China's and India's growing share of the overall Asia-Pacific personal computer market has hiked the region's software piracy rate and increased financial losses, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said in a report released on Wednesday.

"Although solid progress was seen in the region with 13 economies registering decreases in piracy rates, "the average PC software piracy rate increased from 55 per cent in 2006 to 59 per in 2007, the study said. "Dollar losses from piracy rose from almost 12 billion US dollars in 2006 to over 14 billion US dollars in 2007."

The annual PC Software Piracy Study, conducted by market research and forecasting firm IDC, was released in Singapore.

Of the 108 countries included, the use of pirated software dropped in 67, and rose in only eight. "Because the worldwide PC market grew fastest in high-piracy countries, the worldwide software piracy rate also increased" by 3 percentage points to 38 per cent last year.

PC shipments in Brazil, Russia, India and China grew 26 per cent last year, compared to 13 per cent in North America, Western Europe, and Japan.

"We are making much-needed progress in the battle against PC software piracy," BSA President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Holleyman said. "The battleground is now shifting, however, to emerging markets where many of our collective challenges remain."

The Asia-Pacific market for PC software is growing rapidly as incomes rise in the emerging economies, some with very large populations, and demand for PCs expanding, the report said.

"The challenge is to develop a culture of respect for intellectual property in these and all markets so that businesses and other consumers use only legal and fully licensed software instead of installing counterfeit software, making unauthorized reproductions of genuine software or obtaining infringing software on the internet through auction sites," said Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's vice president and regional director.

He noted, however, the support of governments across Asia has been encouraging, with vendor legalization efforts having an impact in Thailand and Indonesia.

A push in India to bundle broadband connections with PCs, particularly laptops, has been attractive to people who use their PCs as media players on the run, the study said. "Ironically, while India is an exporter of world class software expertise, its domestic market still resembles that of an emerging economy."

Stepped up raids by the government in Malaysia on business users of illegal software and legalization moves by Vietnam's government were also highlighted.

Reducing software piracy in the region by 10 per cent over a four-year period could generate 435,000 new jobs, more than 40 billion US dollars in economic growth, and over 5 billion US dollars in tax revenues, the study forecast.

The three highest-piracy countries were found to be Armenia, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan. The lowest are the United States, Luxembourg and New Zealand. (dpa)