BSA: College Students Still Favor Pirating Software

What do college students want from Santa this year? Pirated software, according to the business software alliance.

Of the 400 students interviewed by BSA earlier this month, 60 percent said they knew where to obtain free or discounted software online, and 30 percent said they would take advantage of those unauthorized sites this holiday season to get the programs of their choice.

When asked where they might obtain pirated software, a majority said they got it from friends and family, but 82 percent named peer-to-peer sites like limewire and bittorrent and auction sites iOffer.com and ebay. About 18 percent named only legitimate sources, according to the BSA.

After BSA told respondents that pirated software could contain harmful viruses or backdoors for identity thieves – a subject of a recent report from the group - 43 percent of the students said they would be more careful about software purchases, and 31 percent said they would never get their software from unauthorized sources. About 12 percent did not care either way, the BSA said.

"The results of our holiday survey show reasons for both concern and optimism," Rodger Correa, a BSA spokesman, said in a statement.

"college students are some of the savviest consumers of computers and software," he continued. "We want to make sure students, their families, and friends who may be tempted to obtain software from unauthorized sources will stop and think: Is this legitimate software? Am I about to jeopardize an expensive piece of hardware to save a few bucks on software? If I put this program on my computer, will I expose my personal and financial information to the crooks who supplied this pirated software?"

Tags: business software alliance,harmful viruses,unauthorized sources,holiday survey,peer to peer sites,ebay,legitimate sources,discounted software,auction sites,software purchases,limewire,backdoors,crooks,holiday season,optimism,thieves,respondents,college students,bittorrent,financial information

Monday, November 24, 2008 |

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