The IIPA has published its usual criticism of Canada, but buried within the submission is a preliminary report that Canada's business software piracy rate has declined yet again. The report indicates there is a 2% to decline, to 30%, a record low.
Canadian Software Piracy Rate Drops 2% To Record Low
February 19, 2010
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Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
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Wow, their report is pure propoganda. I can only imagine what the uninitiated would think reading that and taking everything at face value.
Yikes
I can only imagine what a trusting person would think reading that report and taking it at face value.
Expect the BSA
to correct that oversight. The 2009 values are the BSA (an IIPA member association) preliminary statistic. Unfortunately, given the WAG methodology that the BSA utilizes to come up with the “estimates”, 2% is well within the margin of error (of course, so would 25%).
Estimates
I realise why you use their own statistics against them, but we have to be careful not to lend them any credibility. The reality is that their methodologies don’t differentiate between infringement and lawful market trends including market failures and people switching to legal alternatives to BSA member software. I suspect that out of those three the least significant or changing factor in the past decade has been infringement, with the error in their statistics easily being larger than the actual rate of infringement.
@Russell
You are correct. However, one needs to be careful that the criticism is directed at the methodology applied to come up with the statistics and recommendations. If you can discredit that, then the stats and recommendations generated are also discredited. Unfortunately, Prof Geist’s post didn’t really do that; it simply pointed out that the IIPA is sending out mixed messages with respect to Canada. Granted, as a country, our proximity and economic integration with the US means that this kind of pressure can have a disproportionate impact north of the 49th.
And statisticians and pollsters wonder why many take the results of surveys with a seriously large grain of salt 😉
If I read the report correctly, it is saying that Canada’s business software piracy rate is at 30%. This is the second lowest number listed, with Switzerland at 25%. We were tied for 2nd last in 2008. That ain’t bad
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