Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 10/05) - More than half of Canadian college and university students have pirated - or copied - software, according to a recent nationwide survey.

While most students believed pirating is unethical, 47 per cent admitted to downloading software from the internet and 53 percent admitted to swapping disks with their friends.

The study was commissioned by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, a lobby group for some of the largest computer companies in the world, including Microsoft, Apple and Adobe.

"That is not overly surprising," said John Jacque, owner of Cascom Computers in Yellowknife.

The piracy rate in the Northwest Territories is among the lowest in Canada, according the association. About 36 per cent of software users downloaded copied material in 2003, below the national average of 40 percent and nearly half that of the highest province, Nova Scotia.

The high cost of internet access in the NWT and limits on bandwidth - the amount of data that can be downloaded - are likely two major reasons behind the low piracy rates, said Jacque.

"Bandwidth here is very expensive," Jacque said Monday. "That makes it difficult for people to download things like movies and large programs."

The association estimates piracy cost retailers in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut $4.4 million dollars in 2003 and deprived workers of 21 jobs.

"Legitimacy is important," Jacque said. "As a store we are against piracy. Paying for software helps ensure a healthy industry."

Software companies often cite internet downloads as a driving force behind rising prices; they argue they are forced to recoup lost profits from paying customers.

"That might be true, but it is hard to say for certain," said Jacque who believes some software companies like Microsoft have shrewdly manipulated the piracy wave to drive demand for their products.

"They are a lot smarter than we give them credit for," he said.