Software piracy cost 11 billion dollars in 1998: study

     WASHINGTON, May 25 (AFP) - The global software industry lost 11
     billion dollars in 1998 to piracy, according to two studies released
     here Tuesday.
     
     The Business Software Alliance and the Software and Information
     Industry Association also said that of the 615 million new business
     software applications installed worldwide last year, 231 million --
     or 38 percent -- were pirated.
     
[It's amazing how precise these numbers are. More amazing is
 that these studies find so much pirated software, yet we never 
 read about law enforcement busting any of these criminals.]

     It was an increase of 2.5 million more pirated applications compared
     with 1997.

[This is an excellent deception. I call this 'cascading
 bullshit'. Basing new damage statistics/numbers on previously made 
 up numbers that were also verified. This allows for heft totals,
 big percentages (if needed), and a great argument.]
     
     Overall, losses to the industry came to 11.4 billion dollars in 1997.
     A spokesman for the Software and Information Industry Association
     said the slight decline in the value of losses last year reflected
     lower software prices and a fall in sales in crisis-hit Asian
     countries.
     
     The 10 countries with the highest dollar losses to software piracy
     were the United States, China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France,
     Brazil, Italy, Canada and Russia.
     
     In terms of piracy rates, the study found that 97 percent of business
     software applications in Vietnam were pirated, followed by China, 95
     percent, Indonesia, 92 percent and Russia, 92 percent.