Untitled Essay, Research Paper
Software Piracy and it’s EffectsIdentification and Description of the Issue
Copyright law are perhaps those laws which are breached the most by individual on a daily
bases. This is because one might not know be informed about these law or because not much
is done to enforce these law. Also some countries of the world have no Copyright laws.
Software Piracy is a breach of a copyright law as one copies data contained on the medium
on to another medium without the consent of the owner of the Software. When one buy a
software one buys not the software content and therefore it isn’t ones property.
Instead one buy the license to use the software with accordance to the licensing
agreement.
Software companies invest a lot of time and money in creating a Software and the company
rely upon the sales of the Software for it’s survival. If illegal copies are made of
Software the companies earns no money and could therefore be forced into bankruptcy.
Software Piracy can be compared to robbing as one is stealing the goods of someone else
and using it without paying for it.
Up to 13 Billions dollars are lost in computer piracy yearly and in order to overcome
these cost the company are force to rise the prices of their product.
Brand name are properties of their respected companies and they have the right to protect
their properties.Understanding of the IT background of the IssueSoftware is contained on disc or on a CD-ROM. Pirates copy can easily be made of Software
on disc by copying from one disc to another disc. For CD-ROM one needs a CD-ROM burner or
one copies the content onto a large hard disc and then on to a floppy disc.
There are some underground bulletin boards ( BBS ) that contain pirate software. A user
who logs on to one of these BBS can download Full version of Pirate Software provided one
too can give something in return.
On the Internet there are binary Newsgroup such as alt.binaries.warez, WWW pages and FTP
sites that also contain Pirate Software. On the Newsgroup the Files are send upon request
from anonymous users. As a result people who have access to the Internet can retrieve
these Software Program free of charge. The person posting the Pirate software could be
from a countries that has no copyright laws.
These methods used in Software Piracy are hard to stop because of the fact it is done on
the Internet and between individual form different counties.
Buying one legitimate copy of a Software package and then offering it over an internal
network so that it can be accessed by more than one individual at the same time on
different computer is another form of Software Piracy.Analysis of the Impact of the IssueSoftware program is a service just like any other service the difference that this service
come on a medium from which one can make copies. Software are could be judged as begin
expensive but one wants them but doesn’t want to pay for it or can’t afford to
therefore one could be judged as begin a theft.
Office 97 from Microsoft required 3 years to develop and Microsoft invested Millions of
Dollars. Microsoft will rely upon legitimate sale of this product for income and upon that
judge on future versions of their product. If people don’t pay for the program but
make pirate copy Microsoft doesn’t earn a cent and therefore could be force not to
make future version of the product. This would mean that the Computer Industry growth
would be halted and that one will not be expecting newer technology on Software as the
Companies will not have the initiative to bring out better product if the don’t get
anything out of it.
Unfortunately many people aren’t able to see these as many pirates copies are made
but also more importantly also used. Society doesn’t see Software Pirates as thieves
or criminals that could be because one to makes illegal copies in order not to pay.
In Economical these means that if a companies can’t make money it will eventually
have to go bankrupt these would mean that people will lose their jobs.Solution to Problems arising from the IssueSoftware piracy will have to be fought on 2 different levels the first level will be the
political and the second one will be on the technological level.
On the political level one will have to pass tougher legislation against Software pirates.
Also the government should makes regulation with other governments on Software piracy and
encouraging them to be though on Software Pirates and try to combat them. Appropriate
action should be taken against countries who fail to do so.
On the technological level one should consider to insert "Harder" Copy
protection on the Software product. One such method could be that once the Installation of
the Program has been completed one has to register the product and receive a code and each
code begin different according to different variables.
Some Software program have copy protection one them but all of them are cracked very
quickly by hackers and therefore it to unlikely that any new copy protection will not be
cracked. To much copy protection could drive away legitimate consumers.
Till now politician haven’t really looked into the problem of Software piracy and
Copyrights very thoroughly as they think that there are bigger problems to solve. Once
though legislation are passes and people made aware that Software Piracy is a crime one
could see a fall in Software Piracy. In dealing with other country involves a lot of
bureaucracy but also a committed government.
For anything to occur on the political level could take years for any effects to be seen.
It has the greatest chance of solving the problem in the long run.
In the technological side one could solve the problem only one a short term but
implementation would be fast.
SourcesInternet Page WWW.pcworld.com/News December 96
Business Software Alliance Information Sheet on Software Piracy
Computer Ethics Tom Forester &Perry Morrison Chapter3 "Software Theft" page
51-72
CNN Computer Connection December 96 – January 97
PC Magazine entire 96 Volume
Reuters InfoWorld, Vol.19, No.6
Reuters 6 Feb. 97
Media Daily, Jan 30, 1997 Article on FBI crackdown on Software Pirates
318
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