The BSA has put out their 2007 Piracy Study, which has revealed Software piracy in just 8 states in the US (AZ, CA, FL, IL, NV, NY, OH, TX) cost vendors an estimated $4.2 billion, which is higher than the national figure for all other countries in the world except China. Lost revenues to software distributors and service providers were an additional $11.4 billion, for a total tech industry loss of more than $15 billion.
$15 Billion – that is nothing to be coy about – the BSA goes a little far as to saying what we could do with kind of money, but that’s a little extreme. Its lost revenue that would be spread among those who benefit from software vendors’ profits – it wouldn’t really “build 100 schools” as they claim.
It is however, a concern for software vendors so you’d better believe they will try to eliminate this loss in the years to come through audits and more strict control of software licensing.