Tyler Bond

Junior Research Essay

Software piracy: For Good or for the Worse

The computer is the revolutionary piece of technology of our time. It has led us to

endless possibilities. The computer has changed the entire way people live their lives.

Businesses have gone paper free and now rely solely on computers. The computer

provides us with all kinds of information, entertainment and allows us to share ideas.

Ever since the more modern computers came into production, a war has started within the

technology community. Internet is the main source of the war. Through the internet, we

are able to share with each other all kinds of software and files. This war is over whether

or not software should be shared without paying for the software, which is more

commonly known as software piracy.

More than one in four of every software package in use in the United States is

pirated software. While software piracy use is not always willful and may be the result

of ineffective software management policies, it costs the industry over four hundred

million dollars annually. When buying a software package we're actually purchasing a

license to use the software and not the software itself. The agree to terms form that

appears before you install the actual software places many restrictions that limit you

from either editing, removing, and copying the software under certain conditions

Many people do not realize that and just scroll to the bottom of the form and click

agree before they even think about what they are agreeing to. A developer still owns

the rights associated with ownership of the software ("Software Theft").

 Software piracy can be defined as copying and using commercial software

purchased by someone else. Software piracy is illegal as stated by the federal law of

the United States of America. Not all countries in the world enforce software policy;

however, a U.S. copyright of software is effective throughout the entire globe and can

legally act on illegal activities outside the United States. Each pirated piece of

software takes away from company profits, reducing funds for further software

development initiatives. The roots of software piracy may lie in the early 1960s, when

computer programs were freely distributed with mainframe hardware by hardware

manufacturers. “In the late 1960s, manufacturers began selling their software

separately from the required hardware” ("Software Piracy"). In the larger picture,

copying cheats the publisher and everyone who uses the software. It makes software

more costly and denies the publisher the sales it needs and earned to improve software

and finance new projects.

According to a Microsoft study done in 1997, software piracy cost the state of

New York more than $860 million in lost wages, tax revenue and retail sales

(“Software ‘Piracy’: What You Should Know.”). Software isn’t only illegal; it puts a

major dent into the U.S. and global economy. This becomes even more evident now

because our world is turning into a technology and internet driven world everyday,

meaning that more and more of the economy is being contributed by software and

computer technology. With a growing market for computer software, there is also a

growing market for pirating this computer software. There are many methods one can

use to pirate software.

 The most common methods of software piracy are end-user, hard-disk loading,

CD-ROM and counterfeit, and the internet. The end-user or organization copies the

software onto more machines than they are allowed to under the license agreement. Hard-

disk loading piracy is when computer suppliers preload unlicensed software onto

computers and then fail to supply customers with the necessary licenses. CD-ROM and

counterfeit piracy is when Illegal sellers pass off fake software as real, trying to emulate

product packaging by using company names and proprietary trademarks. These can look

convincing. Finally, internet piracy is any form of piracy involving the unauthorized

electronic distribution or downloading of copyrighted software programs from the

Internet (Stone). These forms of software piracy are just the most common; however,

there are many more methods. Even though the software piracy is illegal, it doesn’t

necessarily mean that software piracy doesn’t have benefits.

A small group of software users called the GNU have an interesting take on

how software should be handled. They believe that if they like a program, they share it

with others that like it. They also believe that software sellers want to divide and

conquer the consumers. With this perspective we can see the possibilities for software

piracy benefiting the economy (Parsons and Oja 170=-171). As an example, a worker

bittorrents Photoshop; at home, gets used to it, learns to love it, and gets his office to

buy him a copy for use at work. What if he then recommends it to his colleagues? Two

sales! Say he pirates a copy for his mother and she doesn’t buy a copy, but then a few

months later Adobe releases a new version and she has grown to love the program so

much that she buys the new version. Now imagine a student pirates Photoshop while

at college and copies the software to all his friend’s computers. When they leave the
university and get jobs, they buy legitimate copies. They do this because most people

are not immoral. Most people want to pay for what they use. The reason they do is

because poor people can’t afford it (“Software Piracy - Not Always Bad”). These are

just some of the ways software piracy can benefit both the consumer and the seller.

These benefits may seem great; however, there are more disadvantages to software

piracy.

When consumers decide to make an unauthorized copy of a software program,

the consumer forfeits their right to the support, documentation, warranties, and

periodic updates. Pirated software also often contains viruses that could erase or

damage the contents of the hard drive. Furthermore, the individual is exposing the

computers connected to the network the software is used to legal risk by pirating the

product protected by copyright laws. The profit lost from software piracy could have

been invested into the product itself, resulting in a better product or lower prices for

the software consumer. High piracy rates also impact the success of local software

developers as they work to generate their own market presence ("Software Piracy").

Counterfeit software can be tempting, but weigh the risks, and you’ll see it’s no

bargain. The perceived savings of using pirated software can be wiped out in a single

security breach or critical incident resulting in downtime and fines from the federal

government. Respecting intellectual property rights laws benefits everyone. It strengthens

economies, creates job opportunities, protects honest workers from losing their jobs to

criminals, bolsters technological progress and gives customers the original software

experience they deserve ("Software Theft"). It may seem easy or cheap to just bittorrent
or illegally download this software, but not only is it illegal, it hurts the economy,

peoples jobs, and overall makes the world a better place if it is obtained through legal

means.
 Works Cited:

Parsons, June Jamrich, and Dan Oja. Computer Concepts. 11th ed. Boston: Course

Technology, Centage Learning, 2009.

Software Piracy - Not Always Bad. Weblog. 26 July 2006. methylblue. 1 Mar. 2009

<http://www.methylblue.com/blog/>.

“Software Piracy.” Pirates Info. Pirates. 1 Mar. 2009 <http://www.piratesinfo.com/ >.

“Software Pirates.” Preventing Software theft. Microsoft. 1 Mar. 2009

<http://www.microsoft.com>.

“Software Theft.” The software licensing portal. Nalpieron. 1 Mar. 2009

<http://www.copy-protection-software.com/ >.

“Software ‘Piracy’: What You Should Know.” IT policy office. 24 June 2008. Cornell

university. 1 Mar. 2009 <http://www2.cit.cornell.edu/‌policy/‌copyright/‌

software.html>.

Stone, David M. “Software Piracy.” Educator’s guide to Computer Crime and techology

misuse. 9 May 1999. University Laboratory High school. 1 Mar. 2009

<http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/‌ >.