Software piracy levels decrease in Peru

By Francisco Espinosa Reboa, Francisco Espinosa Bellido

According to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) the levels of software piracy in Peru have decreased 4% during the last 3 years.

Peru has a piracy index of 67%. This decrease follows the tendency of most country members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since the only countries that showed an increase in their piracy index were Spain, Greece and Island. The OECD is composed by 42 countries.

Peru is the fourth country from the OECD countries with a higher reduction in its piracy index, after Chile, Brazil and Canada, respectively. However, its index is still much higher than the regional average (61%) and the international average (42%).
The report also shows that the users that consume more pirate software are between the 25 and 54 years range, and 73% are males.

While this is of course a positive step for Peru and its levels of protection and respect to intellectual property rights, there are still major steps to be taken in this issue, and some question if this decrease in the levels of software piracy are really the product of an increase in downloads of free software, that is replacing the traditional purchase of pirate software in the streets, more than the results of positive policies from the competent authorities or from the legal system itself.