Altium Limited, the electronics design industry's leading developer of unified electronic product development solutions, has extended its Business Software Alliance (BSA) membership to include the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The move will strengthen Altium's IP protection and complement its anti-piracy movements in China and the rest of Asia. The move will see Altium join BSA's efforts to crack down on the $US48 billion black hole caused by piracy - with over 40% of these losses stemming from the EMEA region alone. Many European countries have shown an overall decline in piracy rates since 2003, however characteristics vary with each country and market. For example, Greece which has a piracy rate of 58% experienced industry losses of $198 million last year, while the United Kingdom which has a piracy rate of 26% - one of the lowest in the EMEA region - experienced losses of more than $1.8 billion. But software piracy not only has a detrimental effect on the software industry, it also poses a threat to the IT industry, ultimately affecting local job opportunities and investments into research and development.
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