The world's biggest online auction site has been asked by The Software & Information Industry Association to do something about the disturbing percentage of software being sold using the site's services. When I wrote alarming I wasn't kidding, the numbers provided by the SIIA point to something around 90 percent being illegal versions of the programs.

However, the SIIA is asking for eBay's help because it has a tough time following through with all the reports of alleged corporate end-user piracy. Out of the 427 situations it was presented with, only 17 percent of them had attached sufficient proof to be worthy of being forwarded to a court.

PC World reports that the largest share of software titles pirated were of the 'productivity' category, somewhere around 34 percent, followed by 'operating system,' pinned at 23 percent, while the 'document management' sector recorded 8 percent, the 'creativity' segment had 7 percent and 'security' had 6 percent. Some other minor categories, such as accounting, CAD and mapping, each had one percent.

The most frequently pirated software by companies top ten is as follows:

1. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
2. Adobe Acrobat
3. Symantec PC Anywhere
4. Adobe PhotoShop
5. Autodesk AutoCAD
6. Adobe DreamWeaver
7. Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator
8. Roxio Toast Titanium - Mac only
9. Ipswitch WS_FTP
10. Nero Ultra Edition

"Consumers feel 'taken' when they buy software or any other product only to find out when it arrives that the software is a fake, and they did not get an instruction manual or can't get support from the software company," the report from SIIA mentioned. "Auction piracy would not be such a big problem if SIIA and its members could get better cooperation from eBay and other auction sites. […] Unfortunately, these sites are often unwilling to take the actions necessary to reduce the high-volume software piracy taking place on their sites," it continued.

The software industry lost US$28.8 billion worldwide through software piracy only last year.