Cutting software piracy in Canada by 10% would contribute more than $2.7 billion to the economy, according to a study released by the Business Software Alliance.
The study found that roughly a third of software used in Canada is pirated costing the economy thousands of high-paying IT jobs. Reducing the piracy rate by 10%, to 24%, would generate 5,200 new IT jobs and $875 million in tax revenues over the next four years.
And the survey found that for every $1 spent on legitimate software, an additional $1.25 is spent on related services like software installation, training and maintenance services, benefiting local IT firms.
Despite a third of software being pirated, Canada is one of the top 20 countries with the lowest piracy rates in the world. Canada is on par with countries like Australia, the Netherlands, Norway and Israel, with rates ranging from 29% to 32%.