Global software piracy: Can economic factors alone explain the trend?

Software piracy is worldwide phenomenon and software manufacturers lost $10.67 billions globally in year 2001 due to piracy. Various factors responsible for software piracy are low Gross domestic Product (GDP), availability of pirated softwares, less stringent implementation of copyright regulations, moral problem with the copyright enforcement, the degree of IT infrastructure, and access to the Internet. Countries with higher the GDP per capita has less occurrence of software piracy. Countries with low IT infrastructure doesn't have access to updated softwares packages which in turn promotes software piracy. High tariffs imposed by governments on computer products are also found to encourage piracy. Software piracy is popular in collectivistic societies where software purchased by an individual is expected to be shared among members of groups. Nation with less corruption and weak collectivism has less piracy.