Piracy watchdogs such as the Business Software Alliance and FAST (Federation Against Software Theft’) have been criticised for their strong-arm tactics with organisations who do not meet their full software licensing requirements. Their actions have even led to lively debate among Information Age readers (see Letters).

But according to a new report issued by IDC in conjunction with the BSA, they are simply doing this for the greater economic good. “Reducing the rate of software piracy can help jumpstart the world’s stagnant and struggling economies by creating new jobs and business opportunities that generate spending and new tax revenues,” trumpets the report.

IDC’s research goes on to suggest that a 10-point drop in software piracy worldwide from 40% to 30% over four years, could create 1.5 million jobs, $64 billion in tax revenues, and $400 billion in economic growth. The report even claims that Russia could double the size of its IT sector if this 10-point drop were achieved. When it comes to driving global economic growth, honesty is clearly the best policy.