The company unveiled plans to enhance its anti-piracy engineering, education and enforcement efforts by expanding the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Windows Genuine Advantage checks the authenticity of a user's software and provides access to popular software. According to the Business Software Alliance Global Software Piracy Study, conducted by International Data Corp. and released in July 2004, 36 percent of the software installed on computers worldwide was pirated in 2003. Microsoft aims to reduce the impact of pirated software on legitimate software resellers and economies around the world, which lose nearly US$29 billion a year to pirated software, according to the Business Software Alliance. The Windows Genuine Advantage was introduced as an optional pilot program to users of English-language versions of Windows in September 2004. Response to the pilot program has far exceeded Microsoft's expectations, with more than 5 million people voluntarily taking part since the program began in September 2004. Based on feedback from customers Microsoft will expand the program from 7 February.