Reuters reports on the latest study from the IDC study commissioned by the Business Software Alliance on international piracy. It found that about 35% of the world's software is pirated:

The study, covering 70 countries representing 99 percent of the world's information technology spending, said a worldwide reduction of software piracy by 10 percentage points to 25 percent could generate 2.4 million jobs and $400 billion of economic growth.

The report also said the piracy rate ran as high as 90 percent in China and 87 percent in Russia.

This report comes a day after a congressional hearing on piracy in Russia and China, not limited to software. Washington Internet Daily (subscription required) reported that International Intellectual Property Alliance President Eric Smith told the subcommittee that "China has made 'negligible progress' and 'Russia has actually gotten worse' in addressing piracy since the last report from the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee in May."

Those two nations obviously are notorious for piracy, but Europe's software piracy rate in the BSA-funded study was 35 percent. That's down from almost 80 percent in 1992 before new EU policies, but as a BSA rep in Europe points out, it's 20 times the shoplifting rate.

At our PFF holiday party last night (if you missed it you missed out on a great time!) I was discussing our upcoming trip to Prague and comparing it to our February trip to Milan and Brussels. Both trips address intellectual property protection. Someone asked me, "How come PFF keeps going abroad?"

I think the above provides some reasons why.