Software piracy a growing problem, says study: survey shows practice not limited to students - Stats Watch

University Business, Oct, 2003

A new study by the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org/usa) says that software piracy among college students--as welt as faculty and administrators--is on the rise.

According to the study, it's not just music that gets pirated. Commercial software is illegally copied to the tune of $2 billion a year in the U.S. And, while more than 75 percent of cortege professors and administrators say software piracy is wrong, only 24 percent of students believe that.

The survey polled 1,000 college students and 300 faculty and administrators by telephone and Internet in late May/early June. Among the findings was that students, faculty, and administrators are nearly equally Likely to download commercial software (defined as "programs you would expect to pay money for"), but students were less likely to pay for the downloads. Moreover, nearly two out of five students admitted to increased P2P use, while one in five educators admits downloading with greater frequency.

"Students aren't being told, "Downloading unlicensed or illegal files is a mistake;" said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of BSA. "Them have been positive advancements in P2P technology, but its misuse raises concerns. Education is ever more important to changing these behaviors. With P2P use on the rise, student and educator attitudes toward illegal downloading and file swapping, if ignored, have the potential to become a gateway for increased software piracy on thousands of college campuses." The full report is available from the BSA Web site.