Beware Pirated Avast! Anti-Virus Users (closed)

Software developer complained that only less than 2% of people using its Avast! antivirus application do it officially and have bought a user license. In fact, the original fourteen licenses that it has sold have been found used in more than 200 countries all over the world, starting from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and including even Vatican City!


AVAST Software Company realized it's time to try and convert pirates into paying customers after it had found that its Avast! antivirus program was used by 775,000 active subscribers on the backs of only 14 legal licenses. Meanwhile, the news shouldn't be considered as a threat to the developer who claimed that it has always prided itself on the fact that 4/5 of new subscribers have been recommended the software by their satisfied friends. Thus, the new users are always considered as another chance for further growth.

CEO of AVAST Software, Vince Steckler, admitted that they simply took a decision to see how much viral a single license for Avast! Pro Antivirus program could be. Well, as you can estimate from the figures above, the answer is 'very viral'. After having conducted a research, the company is now in the process of converting the pirates into paying users.

The software developer pointed at the irony that actually license codes for Avast! antivirus are available on the very kind of websites that the program is supposed to protect subscribers from. He added that they found their license code at lots of warez websites all over the world, but everywhere it looks like a paradox when computer users are searching for 'free' antivirus software at places with a known reputation for spreading malware.

The company published a 'Top Dirty Dozen', a list of the countries accounting for the most number of pirated copies of Avast! Russia is leading (surprise, surprise), but the list also contains developed countries: Italy, Spain, the USA, and France, followed by Mexico, Brazil, India, Argentina, and others. Curiously enough, Avast found out that 2 computers in the Vatican also used unlicensed copies of the program.

While the news seems to be really much ado about nothing, as the developer is simply using the whole research to promote its antivirus software, it is still very interesting to know that there are pirates even in the Vatican!