BSA Annual Report Shows Early Results of Five-Year Plan

Software Industry Group Builds Core Programs, Launches New Initiatives, and Expands Its Reach in Emerging Markets

Washington, DC – April 23, 2009

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) expanded its global reach and influence in 2008, promoting innovation and IT solutions to the world’s challenges, while fighting cyber crime and software piracy, the group’s annual report says. 

The report, which is being released today, highlights the early results of BSA’s Five-Year Strategic Plan, which went into effect in 2008. In addition to BSA’s longstanding policy and anti-piracy programs in the United States and leading economies in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, the strategic plan calls for increasing efforts in nine “top” and “emerging” markets: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Thailand, and Turkey.

Among the highlights of BSA’s worldwide activities in 2008 were:

  • Brazil: BSA executives met with leading lawmakers in Brasilia; forged a closer working partnership with ABES, the local software industry association; partnered with the University of Sao Paulo Business School and The George Washington University to produce case studies of Brazilian IT innovation; and laid the groundwork for the March 2009 Technology and Innovation Summit in Sao Paulo.
  • China:  BSA hosted a Chinese delegation’s visit to the United States to examine software asset management (SAM) practices; opened the door to a Memorandum of Understanding to help state-owned enterprises adopt SAM; conducted 12 SAM seminars in eight cities; and raised key policy issues in a series of meetings with government officials. 
  • Europe/EU:  BSA played an active, influential role in European security, privacy, and interoperability debates and hosted the second European Security Awareness Day. BSA also distributed a Risk Management Guide to small businesses across the region; and worked with national governments on key issues in the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
  • India:  BSA launched a first-of-its-kind software legalization campaign with the state of Karnataka; engaged Indian government officials on priority issues; cosponsored and participated in several high-level forums; and partnered with the Indian business group FICCI to lobby for stronger copyright protection.
  • Mexico: BSA forged a closer partnership with the Mexican IP enforcement office; began talks toward a collaboration agreement with the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM); and cosponsored the First Global Summit on IP and the Judiciary, which drew 10 delegations of judges and executive branch officials from around the world.
  • Russia:  BSA made significant efforts in policy advocacy and cosponsored a series of well-attended seminars on intellectual property issues for Russian judges and prosecutors.
  • United States:  BSA championed the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act, enacted in September, which gives law enforcement officials new authorities and tools to fight today’s sophisticated cyber criminals. BSA also advised presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama on tech policy issues. And it partnered with the US Small Business Administration to educate more than 100,000 small businesses on SAM practices.

“BSA is stronger than ever and looking forward to another great year as we enter year two of our strategic plan,” said President and CEO Robert Holleyman.  “Naturally, the state of the economy is an enormous challenge. But BSA’s programs and finances are on solid ground, our plans are forward-looking, and our mission – contributing to the economy and society through a healthy IT sector – is more relevant than ever.” 

BSA is the voice of the world’s leading software companies and their hardware partners on a wide range of business and policy affairs. BSA’s mission is to promote a long-term environment in which the software industry can thrive, so that software can contribute to the prosperity and security of all people. BSA is also the largest and most international IT industry group, with policy, legal and/or educational programs in 80 countries.

While most of BSA’s efforts are led and conducted at the national level, several of BSA’s initiatives are global in scope, including:

  • Global Piracy Study:  For the fifth year, BSA sponsored research by IDC, a respected, independent research firm, which showed that software piracy is coming down in many nations, although the problem remains large and worrisome and is shifting to the world’s fastest-growing and least-regulated markets. 
  • Global IT Competitiveness Study: In September, BSA and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released their second annual global IT competitiveness study, assessing 66 economies to determine how well each supports IT sector success. According to the study, the United States continues to rank first in the world, but its overall score drifted downward slightly, while three economies — Taiwan, Sweden, and Denmark — moved into the top five for the first time, and other economies narrowed the gap with the United States.
  • BSA SAM Advantage: BSA developed the intellectual property for this new program, which is designed to help companies move more easily and efficiently toward lasting adoption of globally recognized software asset management (SAM) standards. Once fully launched and implemented, the benefits of BSA SAM Advantage will include improved license compliance, better IT performance, and lower overall IT costs.

BSA is also well known for its effective anti-piracy programs, which set new records in 2008:

  • Total worldwide enforcement actions:  Almost 15,900 end-user enforcement actions were initiated by BSA worldwide, an increase of 14 percent over 2007.
  • Total Internet actions:  In the Internet anti-piracy program, BSA sent more than 1.9 million takedown notices to Internet service providers targeting peer-to-peer software distribution, and we shut down 39,146 online auctions that were offering more than 216,000 unlicensed member software products.

The complete details are contained in the 25-page annual report, which is available online at www.bsa.org/2008YIR. 

About BSA

The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CA, Cisco Systems, Corel, CyberLink, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, Dell, Embarcadero, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, McAfee, Microsoft, Minitab, Quark, Quest Software, Rosetta Stone, SAP, Siemens, Sybase, Symantec, and The MathWorks.

Media Contact

Amos Snead
media@bsa.org
202-715-1531