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

Most of the software that is used today is purchased as a one-site license. This means that only one computer can have that software installed on in at a time. Copying or sharing this information without the use of multiple licences is seen as Software Piracy. There are many ways of preventing software piracy. Software piracy does not only affect one individual but also can affect a large group or company. Some of the effects of software piracy are; it reduces the funding for ongoing development efforts, it can limit the amount of jobs opportunities that are available to people, it also allows for other unauthorised copies of software that may contain bugs or viruses and lastly it prevents the user form getting any high quality technical support and product updates. There are too main factors/ways that can help to prevent software piracy. One way is hiding the users IP address therefor any traces of you being seen on that website are lost and therefor you cannot be hacked. You can also download software which will set up firewalls in order to prevent the user form getting hacked or getting a

Unlicensed software use continued to be a major problem in 2013. Indeed, 43 percent of the software installed on PCs around the world was not properly licensed, an uptick from 42 percent in 2011. The commercial value of the unlicensed installations was $62.7 billion. (The Compliance Gap, 2014). As we can see piracy of software and other digital media is a global problem that adversely affects many businesses and the welfare of employees and consumers.

Computer piracy has been a discussion point for a long time, but many people view piracy differently. I decided to find out how BSA defines piracy. BSA (The Software Alliance) is the leading advocate for the global software industry. BSA defines piracy as, “unauthorized use or distribution of copyrighted software. It includes downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies of licensed software. Unlicensed software use also includes license infringement – installing a piece of software more times than the license permits – as well as sharing software license codes, uploading software codes to websites so others can download and use it, sharing software license codes or activation keys, as well as user IDs and passwords for web-based software applications.” ("Compliance & Enforcement," n.d.)

Internet piracy is the unlawful reproduction and/or distribution of any copyrighted digital file that can change hands over the Internet, and can be done with music files, videos and movies, e-books, software, and other materials. Individuals who engage in this type of piracy can often conduct their entire operation on the Internet, including advertising and sales. Internet piracy has been around for many years now, but seems to be becoming more common with the availability of, and access to, the Internet. It is unclear to many individuals as to whether or not piracy on the Internet is wrong, and the question is a challenging one to answer. There are many forms of piracy on the Internet, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish between right and wrong downloading activities.

pirated copyright goods shall mean any goods which are copies made without the consent of the right holder or person duly authorised by the right holder in the country of production and which are made directly or indirectly from an article where the making of that copy would have constituted an infringement of a copyright or a related right under the law of the country of importation ().

This statement been said, “Piracy could never be completely gotten rid of.” This is a very true statement. It did take a long time, now pirates have set sail again and this time in cyberspace (The Internet). Their vessels are no longer ships filled with gunpowder and cannons, but desktop and laptop computers. Software piracy has existed as long as software itself, but it has not had a notable effect before the late1980’s. The pirating of software just got easier as hardware became more advanced. The development of the modem has allowed the computer to transmit and receive data. Due to this technological advancement pirates (modern term Hackers) have been able to put pirated software on webpages and websites around cyberspace. These webpages and websites offer the newest and most popular games and programs available for downloading. The downloading and these pages and sites are almost

"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

In this essay I am going to discuss why copyright laws are important in today’s business world and why copying software and other resources is called “piracy”.

With software piracy tending to cover many influences in society, cultural factors has become a key part. In many cases, one popular factor is software such as video games, as it has a big influence with people having a high demand for video games

There are two primary ethical areas concerning software: Pirated software and counterfeit software. Pirated software is the unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software. Software publishers maintain ownership of the software they create and only they control the right to duplicate and distribute their products. Counterfeit software is software that is manufactured to resemble authentic software and is sold as such. This could include the illegal copying and distribution of commercial software on DVD or CD. This is typically accomplished using a CD burner. New technology has made it much easier for consumers to be deceived by counterfeiters via high quality packaging and fake products that are nearly impossible to distinguish from authentic software. Software publishers are continuously looking for ways for consumers to be able to distinguish whether they have purchased authentic or counterfeit merchandise. Many companies are attempting to

Websites like Pirate Bay and Megaupload allowed for millions of people to illegally obtain copies of their favorite software, songs, games, and much more. Stealing on the internet is not a hard thing to do, the costs of copying are not high, and people can do it anonymously. There has been a push in the last twenty years for a more aggressive enforcement of rights and laws for new forms of media.

For electronic and audio-visual media, unauthorized reproduction and distribution is often referred to as piracy (however there is no legal basis for this and indeed in one US copyright lawsuit the judge ordered the plaintiff's legal team to stop using the term). This may occur through organized black market reproduction and distribution channels, sometimes with blatantly open commercial sale (as along the sidewalks of Manhattan's notorious Canal Street), or through purely private

Now-a-days software is being distributed illegally and most of the people use this pirated software. As this is free to use people are not concern about the quality. The people who pirates the software they cannot buy the software but they just put their names after cracking the software for fame. No update is available for any pirated software. Sometimes fake pirated software can harm people stealing information or spreading viruses.

The software industry is the hardest hit by piracy. Using the Web site of the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) and WTO (www.wto.org) – check out egroups LINKS- assess how this

Walk down the street in Thailand and amongst the numerous trinket vendors, you will find one that has catalog of software titles. The same catalogs can also be found at the major shopping malls at numerous retailers. Flip through the catalogs, choose your software titles, and pay around US$3. A runner will go retrieve your titles and, in about 5-10 minutes, you will have your new software. This is only a glimpse of the multi-million dollar world of software piracy and how accessible it has become in the land of smiles, Thailand.