Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Computers Software Piracy1 Software Piracy1 Software piracy has reached epidemic proportions worldwide! In no other medium or industry is the theft of intellectual property more rampant. According to the book, A Gift Of Fire, “Billions of dollars of software is copied illegally worldwide every year.” Being relatively new technologies, the software and internet industries have yet to create a good foundation for the deterrence of theft. But as the courts see more and more cases involving piracy and theft of software, we are happily seeing a trend towards the judicial intolerance of such crimes. Our lawmakers are also jumping on the bandwagon, with legislation such as amendments to the copyright act and with pressure on foreign nations for stricter controls of intellectual property. According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), “The term "software piracy" usually refers to the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyrighted software programs.” This definition is quite narrow, as there are many more ways to violate a copyright or software license agreement. Unauthorized duplication and sale is the primary way that software is stolen today. Duplication may take the form of floppy disks or, with the advent of cd writers, a cd. In many countries where copyright laws are not enforced or non-existent, one can buy cd’s full of software from many different vendors for only a fraction of the cost of the originals. These duplicated disks can usually be bought through second hand computer stores or certain web sites but mostly they are now sold through online auction sites. A recent study from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) “found that more than 90 percent of the software auctions it surveyed were offering pirated products.” The second way to pirate software, which is quickly overtaking the duplication of disks, is to make the software downloadable from the internet. Many of these sites have software (which they call ‘warez’) before it is even officially released to the public. Warez sites gleefully claim they give access to thousands of titles which any user can download, hassle free and at no cost. Some companies actually allow customers to download versions of their programs that are use or time limited. Once the amount of uses or specified time is up, the customer either deletes the program or pays for it. Once it is paid for, the customer then receives an activation (serial) number that allows normal usage of the program. Software pirates are sometimes able to decipher these activation codes or find a way to hack around them, and then post this information to their warez sites. Still another way to obtain software without paying for it is to overuse the license. This primarily applies to businesses, large or small, that buy one copy of a software package with a license to use it on a specified amount of computers or with a specified amount of users. The theft occurs when the package is installed more times, or is used by more people, than the license allows. As it has been said, ignorance is bliss. A good number of people are totally unaware they are stealing when it comes to software they have installed on their computer. Copyright laws can be quite confusing, and very few computer users actually read their software licenses so they may not even know that they are using certain programs illegally. Stealing software, at present, is extremely easy to get away with. No computer police are going to come knocking on your door searching for all the correct licensing. The inherent ease of piracy and the lack of authorities ability to enforce laws are a temptation that is just too great for some people to withstand. What makes it even easier on the conscience is that it seems like “everyone is doing it”. A Gift Of Fire tells us, “People ignore laws they consider unreasonable, especially if many others do so as well, if it is considered socially acceptable, and if the law is not enforced.” Another excuse often heard is that software costs too much, or the notion that one would never go to the store and buy a certain program so the writers are not really losing out on a sale. But if we translate these excuses elsewhere, such as the automotive industry, we see how ridiculous they are. Stealing a Rolls Royce is not acceptable even if one would never buy one to begin with. Businesses will illegally use software simply to cut costs. It is cheaper to purchase a 10 user license and place a program on 20 computers, than it is a 20 user license for those same 20 computers. It is possible that some large companies with many users and computers could lose track of one or two licenses, but anything more than that is highly unlikely as most companies have strict inventory procedures for expenses as costly as software can be. Among the computer elite, it has almost become the accepted practice not to pay for software. Hillary Rosner claims “Much of the traffic in illegal software online, and offline, is grounded not only in a quest for bragging rights but also ... [from] a sense of insider entitlement. Paying is for the dopes who don't know how to get stuff for free.” It has become the ‘in thing’ for insiders or hackers to have as much unpaid for software as possible - whether it is needed, used, or even wanted. All information should be free! This is the cry of one group of computer ‘professionals’ who claim that copyright laws only stifle the distribution of ideas, and that this leads to monopolies and unhealthy economic practices. Whether this is just a rationalization for piracy or a legitimate claim against the software industry will probably never be known. It seems that everyone has a statistic for the amount of piracy that occurs. Unfortunately this is not a phenomenon that is isolated to the US, it has also affected programmers from across the globe. The problem is compounded by countries who have no, or do not enforce, copyright or intellectual property laws. Much of the software that is pirated comes from companies in the US. A Gift Of Fire shows us “the value of business software produced by U.S. companies that was pirated worldwide was $8.08 billion.” This is quite a staggering amount of money for one industry to lose to theft. Margaret Kane explains “annual losses due to piracy in Latin America are about $1.1 billion U.S. dollars” and that “ Software piracy rates in Latin America are around 80 percent.” This is a tremendous amount of revenue, especially for poorer, developing nations whose very survival depends upon the health of their consumer markets. Thankfully, and with guidance from other nations, Central America has begun “to train special enforcement squads to detect software piracy and enforce laws covering the situation.” Ms. Kane also tells us that “new intellectual property laws have been passed in Mexico and Peru and are pending in Brazil.” Not all corners of the world have such progressive views on software theft, parts of Asia and Africa are the worst in the world. Berta Gomez found that “Among regions, the greatest dollar losses occurred in the Asia-Pacific area, with an estimated $3,700 million in lost revenues due to piracy. Revenue losses in Japan were about $1,200 million, in India $255 million, in China $700 million, and in Korea $515 million.” The U.S. has increasingly put pressure on many Asian countries, but diplomacy can only go so far. Online auctions are another method used to facilitate the spread of pirated software. Troy Wolverton places faith in a study showing that on one specific day, there were found to be “544 auctions involving pirated software on eBay, 343 on Excite@Home and 478 on Yahoo.” This study claims that “more than 90 percent of the software auctions” available were for pirated software. With the amount of software being pirated growing, programmers are being forced to come up with ways to ensure their survival. It is unfortunate that most of the security measures that programmers invent to thwart piracy tend to be very restrictive for the normal user. The main form of security in use today comes in the form of a serial number. Commonly, each software package will have it’s own unique serial number that is needed when a user want’s to install it. This number will not work with any other package, and when coupled with user registration becomes a very convenient way to ensure a program is used legally. The serial number scheme has a few flaws, mainly that a copy of the program will use the same number as the original. Most pirated software comes with a text file containing the serial number, or it is written on the copy itself. Another problem is that most users don’t register their software. Registering can be a hassle, and an unregistered program has a higher resale value than one that is registered. But not having a name tied to a serial number makes it extremely difficult for officials to track down the originator of a copy. A way of connecting a name to a serial number is to force users to register software once it is installed. The most common schemes would be to disable the software until registration, or use ‘nag’ windows every time the program is run. The former is quite inconvenient and may even cause some users not to buy that specific program, and the latter is quite easily ignored if the nag windows are not too intrusive. One less intrusive way of protecting software is the use of a port lock, or ‘dongle’. This is a small piece of hardware that is usually placed on the parallel port. When a program is started, it can check for the presence of a dongle and terminate if one is not present. These locks are used most often with more expensive CAD or design programs and do have some system compatibility problems when moved from one computer to another. Asking for the install cd or disk at random intervals is another trick that is sometimes used. This is, of course, quite inconvenient for most users considering most people store their disks in areas other than where their computer is located (like storage closet). Laptop users are even more frustrated at this practice since their disks could be in another town, or state/country for that matter. For corporations or government, a good way to avoid any piracy problems is to put procedures in place that make it very difficult. Tom Diederich writes about our government, which “requires agencies to ensure that only registered software is used on government-owned computers. They must also prepare inventories and maintain record-keeping systems for the software being used.” Even though software pirates are probably one of the most difficult group of criminals to catch, this is not stopping our law enforcement agencies from making some headway against the overwhelming tide of cases. The Business Software Alliance tells us of what punishment we can expect if caught, “The government can criminally prosecute you for copyright infringement. If you are convicted, you may be fined up to $250,000 or given a jail term of up to five years, or both. In 1997, the President signed into law the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, making it easier to prosecute software pirates on the Internet. Now you can be prosecuted even if you do not make money from your infringement.” Elinor Mills spins the tale of an FBI raid in which they “seized computer hardware, documents, and other records” because of suspected piracy. Just as drug dealers can have their property seized, so can software pirates. Many large software companies are members of watchdog groups which keep a watchful eye on businesses and corporations. An Associated Press writer tells us of what happens when industry watchdogs caught Milwaukee based Enterprise Ltd. without licenses for it’s software, “Under a settlement agreement between the parties, Enterprise will pay the BSA $88,500 for unlicensed software installed at Enterprise, delete any unlicensed software at Enterprise and ensure that Enterprise is in full compliance going forward.” These groups get their information mostly from anonymous tips, usually former employees of the offending company, but are very effective in prosecuting the offenders. Still another associated press writer shows us about a man who was “sentenced to five years and 10 months imprisonment” for selling pirated copies of Microsoft products from his store in Boston. This man was also “ordered to pay $908,000 in restitution to Microsoft and to forfeit $440,000 to the federal government.” Stories like this are few and far between, so most people pay very little attention. Software piracy is still following a rising trend, but luckily more people are becoming aware of it. Lawmakers and enforcement officials are quickly getting educated about this crime as software makers take legal action against pirates, and as the few who are caught make national headlines. With billions of dollars at stake worldwide, stronger measures must be taken to ensure not only the survival of individual programmers, but also the economic strength that the software Bibliography: Spotlight On Software Piracy article from: The Better Business Bureau What is the law? Unlicensed Software Costs Milwaukee Company $88,500 Warez faq. Internet Piracy: Defining the Problem 4 articles from: Business Software Alliance 1150 18th Street, N.W. Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 872-5500 www.nopiracy.com Clinton declares war on software pirates October 6, 1998 by Tom Diederich (IDG.net) Survey finds pirates rule online auctions April 11, 2000 by Troy Wolverton CNET News.com Massachusetts pair jailed for software piracy June 15, 1999 By Reuters CNET News.com U.S. software pirate gets four-year sentence June 15, 1999 By Reuters CNET News.com FBI Raids BBS Users in 7 States for Alleged Software Piracy January 29, 1997 by Elinor Mills, IDG.net Steal this software June 21, 2000 by Hillary Rosner IDG.net Novell suit accuses firm of piracy on eBay April 12, 1999 by Dan Mitchell CNET News.com GLOBAL SOFTWARE PIRACY CONTINUES TO RISE, SAYS NEW SURVEY (Industry's 1996 losses estimated at $11,200 million) May 7, 1997 by Berta Gomez USIA Staff Writer Latin American software piracy still un prolemo March 7, 1997 by Margaret Kane PC Week Online Word Count: 2205
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