Personal computer (PC) software piracy rate fell 2 percent in Asia-Pacific region in 2009, a study showed on Tuesday.

However, from 2008 to 2009, despite installations of unlicensed software on PC in Asia-Pacific falling from 61 percent to 59 percent, the commercial value of illegal software rose to over 16. 5 billion U.S. dollars.

These are among the findings from the 7th Annual Global Software Piracy Study, launched by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the global software industry.

The study tracks PC software piracy rates in more than 100 economies worldwide.

The study found that while Asia-Pacific remains the region with the highest dollar losses from use of unlicensed software, anti- piracy education and enforcement campaigns spearheaded in recent years by the software industry, national and local governments, and law enforcement agencies have made commendable progress in bringing down piracy rates.

Of the top 25 economies with the highest commercial value of pirated software in 2009, ten economies came from the Asia-Pacific region.

The United States, Japan, and Luxembourg continue to hold the lowest piracy rates of economies surveyed (with 20, 21, and 21 percent respectively).

In Asia-Pacific, economies with the highest piracy rates include Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan.

China's piracy rate dropped 12 percentage points during the six years from 2003 to 2008, but slowed last year. This was, to some degree, a result of growth of activity in the consumer sector.

The worldwide piracy rate rose from 41 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2009, due to exponential growth in PC software deployments in emerging economies.