Microsoft anti-piracy manager for east and southern Africa has said over 80 percent of software being used in Africa is pirated.

Commenting on the increasing rise in software piracy, Abed Hlatshwayo was quoted by The Post as saying that piracy is not only illegal but it also robs various companies of honest business and African governments of tax revenue.

The Zambian newspaper Monday quoted him as further saying that "resellers that sell pirated software are using crime to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals based purely on price."

Pirated software has no benefits in the long term because of a lack of legitimate support and backup, he said.

He expressed dismay that as software companies introduced new ways to prevent piracy of the products hackers have also developed new and more advanced tools to crack anti-piracy technologies.

He warned that using pirated software comes with massive risks.

Some of the risks associated with pirated software include bad pieces of software that could damage a computer's data, tools that spy on a user while surfing the Internet and technologies that give remote control of a computer to the hacker over the Internet, he said.

"The bottom line is that software piracy is a crime," said Hlatshwayo.

Source: Xinhua