Software Piracy
Software piracy as “The illegal copying, distribution, or use of software.” Piracy includes casual copying of particular software by an individual or business. With the advancement of technological tools software piracy has increased worldwide. You may be thinking, what does this have to do with me? Unfortunately, software piracy affects all of us in more ways than one. For instance, software piracy hurts the economy because revenue is lost. Second, the software industry is affected because limited numbers of jobs are available. Lastly, consumers end up paying higher prices for software programs. Not being educated about software piracy will not exempt you of civil and/or criminal penalties if found guilty. Fines could include up to $250,000 and/or 5 years in jail. Software piracy is considered stealing it is the same as shoplifting or burglary. The software user also runs a higher risk of viruses and fatal system crashes because of corrupted diskettes or defective software. Consumers also lose because they don't enjoy the full benefits of technical support, warranty protection, or product upgrade information.
The history of computer piracy started, because too many factors had a critical influence on it. So, the best way is to begin with the concept piracy is most related to - the Internet. The idea was born in the late fifties, after the first artificial earth satellite - USSR's Sputnik - was launched. In response, the United States formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), with the goal of establishing a US lead in science and technology applicable in the military. The aim of the Internet (1962) was to maintain control over the US Air Force missiles and bombers after a nuclear attack and decentralize the command center so that if any locations (cities) in the US were attacked, the military could still retain control of nuclear arms for a counter-attack. Later on the Internet evolution, the means of communication multiplied and improved, and computers became better and better. In that period, computers started to be of interest not only to the army or universities - this led to the emergence of Personal Computers (PC), and as a natural consequence - first commercial software. The problem was the moment a PC owner had to pay for software, there was an incentive for computer piracy. It has to be said that computer piracy had right from the beginning a very good base for a fast growth - it was hard to buy software and there was no proof of ownership. Nowadays, containing computer piracy is still almost impossible. There is a large and growing number of ways to exchange information - with some, like the recently popular peer to peer connection leaving practically no trace of a data flow. Software piracy applies mainly to full-function commercial software. The time-limited or function-restricted versions of commercial software called shareware are less likely to be pirated since they are freely available. Similarly, freeware , a type of software that is copyrighted but freely distributed at no charge, also offers little incentive for piracy.
Here are some types of piracy. Soft lifting: Borrowing and installing a copy of a software application from a colleague. Client-server overuse: Installing more copies of the software than you have licenses for. Hard-disk loading: Installing and selling unauthorized copies of software on refurbished or new computers. Counterfeiting: Duplicating and selling copyrighted programs. Online piracy: Typically involves downloading illegal software from peer-to-peer network, Internet auction or blog. (In the past, the only place to download software was from a bulletin board system and these were limited to local areas because of long distance charges while online.
The unauthorized copying of software. Most retail programs are licensed for use at just one computer site or for use by only one user at any time. By buying the software, you become a licensed user rather than an owner. You are allowed to make copies of the program for backup purposes, but it is against the law to give copies to friends and colleagues. Software piracy is all but impossible to stop, although software companies are launching more and more lawsuits against major infractions. Originally, software companies tried to stop software piracy by copy-protecting their software. This strategy failed, however, because it was inconvenient for users and was not 100 percent foolproof. Most software now requires some sort of registration, which may discourage would-be pirates, but doesn't really stop software piracy. An entirely different approach to software piracy, called shareware, acknowledges the futility of trying to stop people from copying software and instead relies on people's honesty. Shareware publishers encourage users to give copies of programs to friends and colleagues but ask everyone who uses a program regularly to pay a registration fee to the program's author directly. The only way to fight against this is to make it more appealing for end users to actually want to purchase the software legitimately. Until this happens though, we will continue to constantly be hearing on the news about people and organizations getting in trouble for software piracy, and the problem will just continue to grow.