An estimated forty-three percent of Russian employees use unlicensed copies of software at work, copies that in a majority of cases were installed by their employers, revealed a survey conducted by Russian online job site HH.ru earlier this month. Employers’ greed is the main culprit, according to the respondents, who suffer from a range of negative consequences, from software or system errors to functional limitations to update restrictions.
However, the survey also revealed that, compared to two years ago, a growing number of employees now use legally licensed software.
In its latest report on global software piracy, BSA, an international association of software publishers, has estimated the overall software piracy rate in Russia in 2011 (defined as the unlicensed units / total units installed ratio), to be at 63% and has quantified it at $3 billion.
By comparison, the global piracy rate hovered at 42 percent in 2011, BSA reported, while a steadily expanding marketplace in the developing world drove the commercial value of software theft to $63.4 billion.
Russia’s piracy rate, however, has decreased by two percentage points since 2010, according to the report.
BSA also reported an intensification of the activity of law enforcement agencies in this field. In the first half of 2012, no less than 40 million rubles (approximately $1.3 milllion) was spent to legalize software in use in offices, compared with just 10 million during the same period of the previous year, BSA told East-West Digital News. The spending figure includes fines, settlements and related legal expenses.
