An Investigation of Software Piracy in China - Software Piracy Lacks Ethical Merit

The Software Piracy Problem in China 1. The truth: Software piracy at issue in China. Surprisingly, software counterfeiting has such a profitable global market that “organized criminal groups using the proceeds from software counterfeiting to pay for terrorist operations overseas”, according to Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel international. [1] Even though most people nowadays are aware of pirated software either from various news medium, or by seeing illegal software copies distributed among friends or students in their personal PCs, it would still be a shocking fact that, in the year 2000, software companies estimated that they lost $12 billion in revenue because of counterfeiting. That's 15% of the industry's $80 billion in worldwide sales.

Software Piracy and Copyright Laws: United States versus Vietnam I. Introduction "Software piracy is the unauthorized duplication, distribution or use of computer software". Five main types of software piracy exist: publisher patent and copyright infringement, industrial piracy, corporate piracy, reseller piracy, and home piracy. Software piracy is a large global issue, which has become a more pressing issue due to a number of reasons: software is now easier to distribute on a global scale due to global access to the internet; culturally, people have not been taught that copying software is like stealing; a physical component does not need to be manufactured; and finally individuals state that they cannot afford the high cost of software and state that they would not use the pirated software if they had to pay for it.1 Software piracy is being dealt with on a global level by implementing global copyright laws. However, to date, no completely successful way has been implemented to deal with copyright issues.

This can be done by copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies onto personal or work computers.” (What is Software Piracy?) The whole idea behind software piracy is that you are purchasing a, normally, single license copy to use that company’s product on your computer. You are not just purchasing the software itself, which tends to make some people not realize that some of their actions could be a form of software piracy and not even know it. Software piracy in its entirety is unethical, let alone just plain illegal. Even though it is illegal, there are still millions of people throughout the world that are guilty of being software pirates.

With political chaos surrounding Lebanon since its independence in 1943, the lack of law enforcement allows a variety of of crimes to occur -- one of the biggest ones being software piracy. About 89% of the software in Lebanon is illegally obtained. Section I gives a brief overview of how the origins of Lebanon. Section II describes the politics of Lebanon. The objective of Section I and Section II is to demonstrate to the reader how the lack of a stable government and any true law enforcement allows for so much piracy.

Softlifting is purchasing a licensed copy of software and uploading it on several computers against the license terms. Some examples of softlifting are sharing software with friends, co-workers and others. Uploading and downloading is another form of piracy, such as when making unauthorized copies of copyrighted software available to end users connected by a modem to online service providers and or the Internet. Another one is software counterfeiting which is illegal duplicating and selling copyrighted software and a form designed to make it appear legitimate. OEM bundling is selling stand alone software that was intended to be bundled with specific accompanying hardware.

What is Piracy The term "software piracy" covers different activities: illegal copying of programs, counterfeiting and distributing software - even sharing a program with a friend. It's important to understand the different software piracy channels, not just to comply with the law but also to protect against bigger economic problems like lost revenue...and lost jobs. OEMs and Resellers Just because the disk says Microsoft or the software came preloaded on your PC, doesn't guarantee it's legal. Learn how pirated software is distributed. Copying and Counterfeiting It starts with one legitimate, licensed copy of the software, then escalates from there.

Policeweblab.com virus Policeweblab.com virus is termed as a dangerous threat which targets poorly protected computers to accomplish its vicious task. The virus is capable of blocking access to internet, disabling system programs and rendering computer useless. The destructive program cunningly disguises as a legal enforcement institution to scare PC users in an attempt to steal money from them. The virus is categorized as ransomware because it uses dirty tricks to extort ransom. This virus invades a targeted PC with the help of Trojan.

Such illegal acts could seriously affect industry and society. For instance, losses of software industry profits because of piracy were $12.8 billion in 1993 (Austin American-Statesman 1994), it shows that a large number of software products were pirated. Therefore, piracy is a major problem for the advance of the software industry and consumers. This essay will cover causes and effects of software piracy. There are four main reasons why the piracy of software is easy and widespread, economic development, legislation, reliability of pirated copies and consumer’s attitude.

Viruses are self-replicating programs that, when activated, can damage a computer. These viruses are most commonly found on pirated computer games, placed there by some malignant computer programmer. In his January 1993 article, Chris O' Malley points out that if piracy was wiped out viruses would eventually disappear (O' Malley 60). There are ways that a thrifty consumer can save money on software without resorting to piracy. Computer companies often offer discounts on new software if a person has previously purchased an earlier version of the software.

Whenever you download any copyrighted materials illegally it is considered piracy since the said materials music, movies, game, etc... were not obtained by a purchase. Therefore since the material is protected under the U. S. copyright law those caught and accused can be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Those who are being convicted of a first offense could be fined up to $250,000 and five years in prison. Besides the obvious ethical and legal issues there are other problems that many people have to deal with because of piracy. Along with any illegally downloaded material you also run the risk of exposing your computers to dangerous viruses, malware, spyware, or other unwanted software, all of these can cause your computer to run more slowly and possibly crash this can lead to costly computer repairs, loss of irreplaceable files, and in the worst cases identity theft.