"With no change in the piracy rate in Thailand since 2005, software piracy remains a serious concern for Thailand," said Ronald Chua, chair of the BSA's Thailand Committee.

"This has been a significant setback for the local ICT [information and communications technology] industry and has limited the growth potential of the industry to become a major contributor to the country's economy," he said. "The high piracy rate reflects on the rampant and continued use of illegal software among corporate end-users. We remain optimistic, however, that the sustained efforts of the government to promote the use of original and licensed software among companies will ultimately drive down piracy levels."

The US attributed the huge piracy rate to its recent decision to downgrade Thailand's trade status to its Priority Watch List. Thai exporters are fretting that in retaliation, the US could further cut privileges on Thai exports to the country under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

The study indicates that even relatively low piracy rates can amount to huge losses in large markets. For example, while at 21 per cent, the US had the lowest piracy rate of all countries studied, it also had the greatest total losses, $7.3 billion. China saw the second-highest losses at $5.4 billion with a piracy rate of 82 per cent, followed by France with losses of $2.7 billion and a piracy rate of 45 per cent.

The BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study covers piracy of all packaged software that runs on personal computers (PCs), including desktops, laptops and ultra-portables. Over the next four years, businesses and consumers worldwide will spend $350 billion on PC software. If current trends continue, the study predicts more than $180 billion worth of PC software will be pirated during that period.

"The good news is we are making progress in most countries. However, we still have a lot of work to do to reduce unacceptable levels of piracy," said BSA president and CEO Robert Holleyman.

Worldwide, for every $2 of software purchased legitimately, $1 was obtained illegally. Last year, global losses increased more than $5 billion, or 15 per cent, from 2005. Of the 102 countries covered in this year's study, piracy rates dropped moderately in 62 countries and increased in 13.

China's piracy rate dropped four percentage points for the second consecutive year, as well as 10 percentage points in the last three years, from 92 per cent in 2003 to 82 per cent last year.

Of the 15 individual markets examined in the Asia-Pacific, the rate of piracy actually dropped in 11 and stayed the same in four. Despite these results, the average piracy rate for the region increased 1 point to 55 per cent. This seems counterintuitive, but China and India's share of the PC market in the Asia-Pacific grew from 42 per cent in 2005 to 46 per cent last year. This has the mathematical effect of dragging the regional average upwards towards China and India's average, even though the piracy rates in both countries came down last year.

Despite the piracy-rate reductions in most countries in the region, losses from piracy increased 44 per cent to $11.6 billion last year.

The study showed that in more than half of the 102 countries studied, the piracy rate exceeded 60 per cent. In about one-third, it exceeded 75 per cent.

The EU and Canada continue to have high losses despite low piracy rates.

The EU had losses of $11 billion with a 36-per-cent piracy rate, while Canada had losses of $784 million with a 34-per-cent piracy rate.