Software piracy declined last year, according to an industry-sponsored survey. Pirated software is still standard in mainland China, where it made up about 86% of all software used in 2005, the Business Software Alliance reported. But this marks an improvement on the 90% reported in 2004 and the 92% in 2003. The decline may be linked to Beijing's ongoing efforts to protect intellectual property. Although China is the second largest personal computer market in the world after the US, foreign software companies have struggled to make profits. One program that had a major impact was a move by Beijing to urge all government offices to replace any pirated copies with legitimate ones, the Alliance said.
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