Just what would Malaysia gain from a dip in the country's software piracy rate; say, like a 10-percentage point drop from the current 61%? Quite a lot, said Jeff Hardee, vice-president and regional director of antipiracy watchdog Business Software Alliance Asia. If the rate were to drop to 51%, one effect would be 5,400 new jobs in the information technology (IT) sector, he said. It would also add US$1.2bil (RM4.56mil) to the local economy, increase local IT industry revenues by more than US$908mil (RM3.45bil) and pump an additional US$240mil (RM912mil) into the Government's tax coffers. With those figures, Malaysia's IT sector would nearly double in size over the next four years from about RM11bil to RM21bil. Between last year and this, Malaysia's piracy rate has dropped two percentage points, although it is still above the Asia Pacific region's average rate of 53%. BSA Malaysia is pleased nonetheless. Its chairman, Ajay Advani, said the Government is doing the right thing in implementing and enforcing measures to protect intellectual property rights. Results of IDC's study is available online at www.bsa.org/idcstudy. The software piracy rate measured by the study includes business and household piracy. Full article The Star