Although software piracy loses ground and is declining in most countries of the world, due to the fast growing computer industry in the countries with high piracy rate, the worldwide piracy rate reached the 38 percent milestone, the Business Software Alliance revealed in a new report. According to the findings, the leading countries when it comes to piracy are Armenia (93 percent), Bangladesh (92 percent) and Azerbaijan (92 percent), while the nations with the lowest piracy rate are the United States (20 percent), Luxembourg (21 percent) and New Zealand (22 percent).

However, it's important to note that piracy is losing ground, and authorities from all over the world struggle to stop this phenomenon and encourage computer users buy and use genuine software. Also, from today's stats, it may seem like these campaigns are proving to be pretty efficient although there are countries where the piracy rate remains extremely high.

"By the end of 2007, there were more than 1 billion PCs installed around the world, and close to half had pirated, unlicensed software on them," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. "This study shows that government and industry anti-piracy efforts are working in many countries, however, their attention will increasingly turn to combating piracy in emerging economies."

Russia, one of the countries that had quite a high piracy rate, registered an applaudable evolution and managed to reduce it by 7 points, reaching 73 percent. However, the piracy rate is still high, the Business Software Alliance report explains, but it's important to see there are more efforts directed towards reducing the phenomenon, such as consumer-oriented campaigns and government actions.

"We are making much-needed progress in the battle against PC software piracy, and that's good news for governments, end users, businesses, and the industry," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman. "The battleground is now shifting, however, to emerging markets where many of our collective challenges remain."