CANADIANS STEAL SOFTWARE AND DON'T CARE ABOUT ECONOMY
By Adnews Staff
Many Canadians believe software piracy is OK even though they know its bad for the economy and jobs, according to a survey done by Decima Research of Toronto. Forty-three per cent of respondents said pirating software for personal use is acceptable, while 70% said piracy can have a negative impact on the country. Only 20% would report someone for unlawfully copying software. The study was commissioned by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft. "Canada's economy lost over $500 million to software piracy in 1996. Given this high cost to our society's economy and job market, it is disturbing to find that stealing a chocolate bar, lying on a resume and taking office supplies are considered more serious crimes than copying software," CAAST lead counsel Michael Eisen says in a release. "CAAST views this survey as a call to action to further educate the public on the seriousness of software piracy." The organization has an anti-piracy hotline to report suspected software piracy. In addition, it recently launched a direct mail campaign to educate the public about the problems associated with piracy. The campaign was created in-house. CAAST was established in 1990. It is an industry alliance of software manufacturers who want to reduce software piracy. CAAST member companies are: Apple Canada, Autodesk Canada, Claris Canada, Corel Corp., Eicon Technology Corp., Lotus Development Canada, Microsoft Canada Co., Novell Canada and Symantec Canada.