More folks than ever are stealing, not buying, software. Global software piracy increased for the fourth straight year in 2003, the Business Software Alliance said.

The alliance – made up of software publishers – said in its annual study that member companies lost nearly $15 billion in sales to software piracy in 2003. And 40 percent of all new software installed by businesses last year was obtained on the black market, up from 37 percent in 2000.

Movie, music and video game industries have been prime piracy targets of home users. The availability of bootlegged media on the Internet, particularly in peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has eaten into sales.