Software firms' piracy loss rises to $202 million.

Byline: Jessica Anne D. Hermosa

Software firms lost $202 million to piracy in the Philippines last year, up 37.4% from 2007, an annual industry report showed.

The ratio of pirated goods to total software in the country, meanwhile, remained at a high 69% versus the regional average of 61%, according to the Global Software Piracy Study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the International Data Corp. (IDC).

A continued rise in sales of "white box' computers - those that come with no software and are assembled by users themselves - is to blame, said BSA consultant Bienvenido A. Marquez III.

Fast growth in laptop sales, however, …