Essay about Software Piracy

Today, software is part of our daily life, running everything from PC to the digital world of the Internet. It is undoubtedly the most valuable technology in the information age. Software also comes at the expense of major problems in family, school, business, and government - piracy. Copyright law protects intellectual property software developers, but unfortunately new technologies not only strengthen legal access and distribution of copyrighted works but also are illegal. Software piracy is an illegal and unethical behavior that everyone should understand. Before realizing the importance in the United States, it is important to understand the diversity of software piracy.

If more users use more software on the server than allowed by the license, overuse of the client server occurs on the network. Piracy on the Internet is to download software from the Internet via copyright law, peer-to-peer network, or pirate website violating the auction site. In addition, whenever a company sells a computer with pre-installed illegal software, a hard disk load will occur. Software counterfeiting includes "illegal copying and selling of copyrighted works designed to directly imitate copyrighted work" ("illegal copy protection information").

Software piracy is a very dangerous issue as it caused a worldwide loss of $ 13.08 billion in 2002, an increase of $ 2 billion since last year. "In the United States alone, in 2001 there was a loss of 1.8 billion dollar revenues, 11 million unemployed, a loss of wages of $ 5.6 billion and a tax loss of $ 1.5 billion (Erickson, 8) These losses are mainly due to excessive installation of software, not illegal copying or counterfeiting of retailing ("illegal copy protection information"). The United States is the world's lowest, but the percentage of counterfeit software is 25% and it is very high. The worst country is the highest in developed countries, for example 95% in Vietnam ("software piracy").

Software piracy is legally protected software theft. According to the copyright law, if copyrighted software is copied, distributed, altered or sold, an illegal copy of the software will occur. Illegal copying of software is regarded as a direct infringement of copyright, as the copyright owner denies compensation for use of his work. Penalties for software illegal copying apply to users who have illegally copied copyrighted works, and / or users who have intentionally illegally copied works. If it can be proved, accepting pirated software without knowing it is another situation. End users may notice red marks indicating illegal copy software, especially if the acquired digital media is packaged in an unobtrusive or general container such as a CD sleeve or an unnamed disk package.

1 Contents of my report This report explains the countermeasures against software piracy, the weather where pirated software is acceptable, and the impact of illegal copying on end users and companies. 1.2 What is illegal copy of software Oxford Dictionary defines software as "program used by computer and other operational information". (Oxford English Dictionary, nd) Microsoft defines software piracy as follows.

Pirated copyright infringement means illegal copying, counterfeiting, or distribution of software. Piracy is essentially stealing the intellectual property of others. The five most common types of software illegal copying are end user illegal copy, client / server abuse, Internet illegal copy, hard drive loading, and software forge. End user illegal copying occurs when a company employee copies the software without proper permission. Piracy of end users may be done in various ways. Use of illegal copies of licensed software: worldwide problems illegal copying of software is defined as an illegal copy of software for commercial or personal benefit. Software companies have tried various methods to prevent illegal copying and have achieved various successes. Several organizations, such as Software Issuing Association and Business Software Alliance, were established to prevent world and domestic piracy. Software piracy is an unsolved worldwide problem, resulting in millions of dollars of revenue being lost. Software company