A group of international software developers are stepping up the fight against software piracy in Ireland with the introduction of a reward scheme.

Up to £2,500 will be paid to people providing information to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) about illegal internal business copying of software leading to successful legal action.

Latest industry estimates indicate that 65 per cent of software used in Ireland has been pirated, 26 points higher than the estimated European average of 39 per cent.

Last year, the illegal copying and use of computer programmes generated losses of £33.5 million.

The new reward scheme will apply to the illegal copying of software belonging to BSA member companies. These include Adobe, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Lotus Development, Microsoft, Novell, and Symantec. Additional members of the BSA's policy council include Apple Computer, Compaq, IBM, Intuit and Sybase. The BSA Website can be found at www.bsa.org.