Software Piracy And Its Effects

The profits from these sales of counterfeit software don't help expand the economy by providing jobs, taxes, and wages, and there is a good chance the profits are funding additional illegitimate businesses. Legitimate companies never receive any funds from the sale of counterfeit software, and frequently this loss of revenue leads to layoffs for workers in all related industries, from manufacturers to resellers. So, as you can see, purchasing counterfeit software doesn't only impact software manufacturers, it impacts everyone. Innovation is Slowed Intellectual property is the ownership of ideas as well as the control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas. Software is intellectual property, as are books, movies, and music.Like music performers and authors, software developers use copyright laws to protect their work and their investment in the field.

The pirate has a set of excuses for his actions: prices are too high; the company doesn't provide decent support; he's only going to use the program once in a while. Although, what really makes software piracy seem less bad than other kinds of theft is that nothing is physically taken. There is no immediate effect on the inventory or productive capacity of the creator of a piece of software if someone 500 miles away copies a disk and starts using it. People tend to think of property as a material thing, and thus have a hard time regarding a computer program as property. However, property is not a concept pertaining to matter alone.

There are lots of concerns I have to think about when working in a field of computer science and technology. It won’t be easy to open a company if I will be losing a lot of money instead of making profit. I have to think of ways to prevent my software from being distributed online for free on peer-to-peer software or torrents, to secure my database from getting hacked and to prevent by website from temporarily shutting down due to DDos attack.

Even though it is illegal, there are still millions of people throughout the world that are guilty of being software pirates. Not only does this affect the company itself that is having their software stolen from them, but it affects other companies as well as the loyal customers who actually purchase their products as intended. There are four main types of software piracy that needs to be looked at more in depth to really understand why and how this is happening. The first form is considered ‘End User Piracy’. A Microsoft definition for end user piracy is, “End-user copying is a common type of piracy.

Without laws and regulations, such as copyright, patents, and trademarks, new ideas would not be invented often, because people can steal the work or idea easily without any criminal penalties. In the comic “Doonesbury” created by Garry Trudeau, an American social and political cartoonist, it portrays one of the main problems of society situation on internet piracy. The comic showed that internet piracy is another way people steal something that has a real value from the internet by using file-sharing websites. Even though people understand it is not right to use file-sharing websites, the majority of the public does not see the problems with using it (Trudeau 641). In a study from 2011, 70% of online users find online piracy socially acceptable (Masnick).

Software Piracy: 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.

Everything that goes online can be accessed by others, and this makes it difficult for managers to identify matters and practices they should be concerned with, including consumer’s privacy (Ccnmtl.columbia.edu, 2014). Failing to protect consumer’s privacy could lead to hacking and intrusion of an individual’s personal information (Khosrow-Pour, 2002; 2). For example, social applications such as WhatsApp and Viber are becoming increasingly popular. The instant message Viber has failed to protect the user’s privacy. It has been hacked recently by the Syrian Electronic Army (“Viber free download” 2014) despite the technical measures used to protect user’s data.

In fact, in many cases, it easier for someone to go online and download an illegal copy of a software program than to drive to a store and buy it from a retailer. · Anonymity and Personal Privacy: Pirating software can be committed wit... ... middle of paper ... ...autions to secure the software from being pirated. But it also means that there might be more problems, even inside the software’s code. So that gives the challenge to the programmer to construct a software that is the best that it can be. Conclusion Software piracy is not as bad as the companies want to appear it.

Introduction Source code is the lifeblood of all high tech software organizations. If it falls into the wrong hands, a company will very likely experience damagingly costly repercussions. As a result, most tech companies invest a relatively large chunk of their revenues into network security. Why do people pirate software? The obvious answer is: people want to use the software, but not pay for it.

Internet piracy is a sketchy subject and not a victimless crime posing a large threat to artists and their record labels. However, free downloads have maintained their allure for people building their music library. Online piracy affects everyone and it needs to be stopped. The major con of piracy is that its breaking the law and doing something that is ethically questionable at the very least. If you download something instead of buying it, you are essentially stealing.