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Short note on software piracy
Short note on software piracy
Short note on software piracy
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Piracy of Technology
The topic that I chose for my website and thesis project is piracy of software, music, and video from the Internet and other digital sources. With technology growing at faster rates than ever, this has become a very large problem practically overnight. Even though software and video piracy has become a huge problem, music copyright infringement has by far overshadowed these two. You can find a new article in the news about it almost every day and every one has an opinion including me. And I will be more than happy to share mine later.
I will begin by discussing software piracy. This crime has been around for a long time. Unlike the others, it has been a problem ever since the advent of computers. It also comes in many shapes and sizes. It is also very easy to copy and the duplicate is usually as good as the original.
From the day that a piece of software is created, federal copyright laws automatically protect it. The only way that a consumer can copy a piece of copyrighted software is to copy it onto a single computer or to make another copy for archival purpose only (Computer 2). It is very illegal to copy and sell copyrighted software, and there can be very heavy fines if a violator gets caught. It is considered a federal crime and comes with punishments of up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine (Computer 2).
There are many types of software piracy including soft loading, which is the purchase of a single user software license that is then loaded onto many computers (Computer 1). This occurs in the office most frequently. Counterfeiting is making and selling fake copies of real software. People also rent software to consumers when they do not have permission from th...
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“Computer Software Piracy”. 26 March 2003. http://bbb.org/library/pastip.asp.
“How to Stop Online Music Piracy” 9 April 2003. http://www.pan.com/piracy/.
“MacOpinion: In Defense of Piracy” 9 April 2003. http://www.macopinion.com/columns/curmudgeon/99/01/28.html.
“Music Piracy and the Home Audio Recording Act” 9 April 2003. http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2002dltr0023.html.
“Music Piracy Report 2002” 26 March 2003. http://www.ifpi.org/site- content/antipiracy/piracy2002.html.
“Music Piracy Can Be Controlled” 9 April 2003. http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,16895,00.asp.
“Software Piracy and the Definition of Shareware” 9 April 2003. http://www.notepager.net/piracy.htm.
“Kazaa Taunts Record Biz: Catch Us” 9 April 2003. http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,55356,00.html.
Sea robbers: These pirates were not faithful to any government and roamed in the open seas.
A big topic that has come about is should people be prosecuted for illegally pirating online files. This includes; music, movies, programs, games and pictures. The large portion of online piracy is music. Some will argue stealing a song is as bad as stealing a car. (kain) Others will concur that song artist and record companies are losing big time bucks. Downloading music should be prosecuted as it is still stealing. Whether the person has it in their physical possession or files on their electronics it is still stealing and artist are losing money that is rightfully theirs.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
Why do people pirate software? The obvious answer is: people want to use the software, but not pay for it. However, when we change the question slightly, to: “Why do people steal source code?” A variety of interesting answers can pop up. Possibly, the thief wants to modify the code, make copies of it, and proceed to sell it as his own creation -- for a profit. Or, perhaps the perpetrator is a raging open source advocate and he simply wants to examine the stolen code to improve his programming skills. As harmless as the latter may sound, it is still a clearly defined crime in virtually every hi-tech country in the world.1
A Worldwide Problem Software piracy is defined as the illegal copying of software for commercial or personal gain. Software companies have tried many methods to prevent piracy, with varying degrees of success. Several agencies like the Software Publishers Association and the Business Software Alliance have been formed to combat both worldwide and domestic piracy. Software piracy is an unresolved, worldwide problem, costing millions of dollars in lost revenue. Software companies have used many different copy protection schemes. The most annoying form of copy protection is the use of a key disk. This type of copy protection requires the user to insert the original disk every time the program is run. It can be quite difficult to keep up with disks that are years old. The most common technique of copy protection requires the user to look up a word or phrase in the program's manual. This method is less annoying than other forms of copy protection, but it can be a nuisance having to locate the manual every time. Software pirates usually have no trouble "cracking" the program, which permanently removes the copy protection. After the invention of CD-ROM, which until lately was uncopyable, most software companies stopped placing copy protection in their programs. Instead, the companies are trying new methods of disc impression. 3M recently developed a new technology of disc impression which allows companies to imprint an image on the read side of a CD-ROM. This technology would not prevent pirates from copying the CD, but it would make a "bootleg" copy differ from the original and make the copy traceable by law enforcement officials (Estes 89). Sometimes, when a person uses a pirated program, there is a "virus" attached to the program. 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. Competition between companies also drives prices low and keeps the number of pirated copies down (Morgan 45). People eventually tire or outgrow their software and decide to sell it.
With a population of 1.357 billion (2013)3, China is the most populated country in the world. Along with the huge population comes a market that is unmatched by any other country of the world. Both domestic companies and foreign companies want to tap into this large market that just recently embraced capitalism and entered into the World Trade Organization.
The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.
The protection of trade in general has always been considered as essential to the defense of the commonwealth, and, upon that account, a necessary part of the duty of the executive power.
Physical piracy-the copying and illegal sale of hard-copy CDs, videotapes, and DVDs-costs the music industry over $4 billion a year worldwide and the movie industry more than $3.5 billion. These numbers do not factor in the growing (and difficult to measure) problem of Internet piracy, in which music and movies are transferred to digital format and copies are made of the resulting computer file. Journalist Charles C. Mann explains why Internet piracy has the potential to be vastly more damaging to copyright industr...
copyrighted software by a person or entity that has not been licensed to use the
and distributing it or installing more than one copy of one piece of software on
All around the world people connected to the internet are downloading free digital content through P2P file sharing software.
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.
Music piracy is a developing problem that it affects the music industry in many different ways including being responsible for the unemployment of 750,000 workers, as well as a loss of $2,5 billion; therefore, I want to explore ‘To what extent has music piracy affected the music industry market in the United States over the last 10 years?’
In this paper I am going to talk about the issues with illegally downloading not only music, and movies but all copyrighted materials. The simple fact that just because everyone else may be doing it does not make it right to do. My personal opinion on whether I consider myself a moral person. Then lastly how this compares to the millions that Bernie Madoff stole from his clients.