While Indonesia continues to top the list among the 5 countries HWM is in, software piracy in South-east Asia has generally gone down or remained the same.

Want to know which top 10 countries have the highest software piracy rates in the world? Click on the image.

T&A: The Business Software Alliance (BSA) held a press conference yesterday and unveiled its Sixth Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study to the media. According to the study, PC software piracy rate in 2008 dropped in slightly more than half (57 countries) among the 110 countries studied worldwide, but remained the same in nearly one third (36) and rose in just 16.

This also means that worldwide piracy rate went up from 38% in 2007 to 41% in 2008. BSA attributed this rise to fast-growing PC shipments in high-piracy rate countries.

For the Asia Pacific alone, the average PC software piracy rate increased from 2007’s 59% to 2008’s 61%. According to Jeffrey Hardee, BSA’s VP and Regional Director, APAC, losses from this reached over US$15 billion. Hardee explained that this increase is the result of the mathematical outcome of more rapid growth of PC markets in APAC economies with higher piracy rates.

The study also explained that the current economic crisis had little effect on piracy in 2008 due in part to significant spending cutbacks, which started late in the year, and the cost of software (and the user’s ability to pay for it). The downturn also changed some calculations in the study, such as changing exchange rates and decreased consumer and business spending power. BSA expects the crisis to have a much bigger effect on software piracy in 2009, as consumers hold onto their PCs longer and use unlicensed software, thus resulting in increased software piracy.

The study also listed a range of factors which it believes will drive up piracy. These include increased broadband Internet access, faster growth in high-piracy segments, emerging market growth and economic slowdown (which would divert government attention).