Robert Holleyman

What if 57 percent of consumers admitted they shoplift? That's how many of the world's computer users say they pirate software, according to the ninth edition of the BSA Global Software Piracy Study.

Some say they do it all or most of the time. Some say they...

The English author H.G. Wells is thought to have said, "Human history is, in essence, the history of ideas." How right he was, considering the visionary innovators who have transformed the world with great ideas. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Johann Gutenberg, plus more modern day icons such as Steve Jobs...

If there was any doubt, a new report from the Commerce Department makes it abundantly clear that intellectual property is the secret sauce in the US economy, officially contributing roughly one-third of the country's GDP and more than a quarter of its employment. If you are keeping score, that comes...

Cloud computing is the fastest-growing and most exciting new sector in the software and computing industries. IDC estimates that by 2015 revenue from public IT cloud services...

Software piracy rates are highest in the developing world, where per capita incomes are lowest. For some observers, this correlation is evidence of causation. Software costs too much for people in emerging economies to afford, the argument goes; that's why they steal it. Charge less, and...

In one of the most significant steps on data privacy in recent years, the European Commission is set tomorrow to put forward a comprehensive plan to reform the EU's data protection rules. As a starting point in this long process, the Commission should be lauded for tackling one of the...

When House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith and his bipartisan cosponsors last month introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), I said in a press statement that the bill would have to balance key innovation, privacy and security considerations with the need to thwart the threat rogue websites pose...

"Technology has transformational power," the Government of India declares in its 2011 National Policy on Information Technology. "It is a great leveler of opportunity within and across economies."

This observation is undeniably true, and India is well on its way to achieving its aspiration of harnessing technology innovation...

For countries seeking to develop globally competitive information technology sectors, the secret to success isn't much of a secret: You need a healthy business environment, first-rate IT infrastructure, dynamic human capital, robust research and development, a strong legal environment, and adequate public support for industry development.

Information and communications technology has the potential to cut energy use and reduce greenhouse emissions by as much as 15 percent in the next decade while saving up to $750 billion, according to one estimate. That is an attractive proposition for businesses and governments looking for ways to...

A recurring theme in this week's discussions between BSA member-company technologists and their counterparts in government has been the question of how to crank up America's innovation engine to more effectively foster new industries and create jobs that will drive a robust recovery in the near term and...

By fundamentally transforming the way computing power is bought, sold, and delivered, the cloud is proving itself to be truly transformative. Industry by industry, sector by sector, enterprises are reimagining their back offices and offering products and services to customers in new, highly efficient ways that create widespread benefits for...

BSA kicks of its 2011 CTO Forum today -- an annual series of meetings between some of the top technologists in software and computing and their counterparts in the federal government. Over two days, nine high-ranking technologists from BSA member companies will meet with 14 high-level technology decision-makers in the...

Earlier this year, BSA reported in its annual Global Software Piracy Study that the commercial value of PC software theft leapt 14 percent worldwide in 2010 to $59 billion. Behind all that theft, of...

In today's deeply divided Washington, there is now one thing that almost everyone agrees with: The federal government could save a great deal of money and boost its performance by adopting cloud computing solutions for many of its IT needs. Through a mixture of public, private and hybrid cloud solutions,...

Data security and breach-notification legislation, badly needed for the good of the digital economy and long sought by stakeholders of all stripes, has nonetheless proven to be a Sisyphean task in Congress. Lawmakers first took up the issue six years ago, during the 109th Congress, but to no avail. In...

Data breaches are all over the news these days -- Epsilon, Sony, Citi and Lockheed Martin, to name a few of the corporations, along with a number of government agencies and organizations.

One group, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, has recorded more than 2,500 breaches since...

Ten years ago, the main threats to security online were vandals and hackers. They chased notoriety and relished the challenge of beating security systems. Their calling cards tended to be denial-of-service attacks, which they used to bring down prominent sites such as eBay and CNN.

Today, the stakes...

The software industry is being robbed blind. That is the main conclusion I draw from the newly released 2010 BSA Global Software Piracy Study, which is available with a rich, interactive presentation of the latest data at www.bsa.org/globalstudy.

Intellectual property rights -- copyrights, patents and trademarks -- provide the legal framework necessary for creative enterprise like commercial software development to flourish. But it is widely assumed that most people view IP rights as business and legal concepts with little relevance to their daily lives. That's why the World...