Software and hardware piracy a $90m business

Software and hardware account for a significant amount of counterfeited goods worldwide, according to recently published data.

In December 2004, $79m worth of entertainment media and software and $11.4m worth of computer equipment and supplies were counterfeited, according to data released by Canada's Gieschen Consultancy, a specialist in counterfeiting analysis and security research.

Those figures put software and hardware at third and fifth place, respectively, on Gieschen's list of the types of counterfeited goods with the greatest value.

Unsurprisingly, 'financial instruments' - currency, checks, credit cards, treasury bonds and money orders - topped the list with $875bn worth of counterfeits in December. Forged documents such as degrees, tickets and coupons ranked second.

So far this month, $704,600 worth of entertainment and software haw been counterfeited, second only to clothing and accessory fakes, according to the Gieschen Consultancy website.

Overall in December, $875.25bn worth of goods were counterfeited in 35 countries.

Malaysia saw the largest value of counterfeited goods, followed by the US, Canada, Japan and the UK.

Many IT brands were among the most popular to be faked including AMD, Microsoft, Canon, Epson, HP and Panasonic.

Glen Gieschen, managing director of Gieschen Consulting, said in a statement that 32 per cent of the counterfeit incidents last month involved some form of intellectual property such as brands, trademarks or patents. He added the amount of counterfeit goods confiscated by law enforcement grew 200 per cent from November to December of 2004, due to police and customs officials increasing efforts to catch counterfeiters as well as a rise in counterfeiting activity.

The creation of fake identification such as passports, visas, ID cards and driver's licences is also big business, coming in sixth on the list and worth $6.6m in December.

According to Gieschen, fake IDs are often used by individuals carrying out other crimes such as credit card and check fraud - a key reason many people cite when pushing for biometric passports and national ID cards in countries such as the UK.