Software in the Land of Smiles (a study of software piracy in Thailand)

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.

Darrell Panethiere wrote in “The Persistence Of Piracy” on page 2 that “'Piracy refers to the activity of manufacturing unauthorised copies ('pirate copies') of protected material and dealing with such copies by way of distribution and

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.)

Software needs to be crippled and function only on the computer of the person who purchased it. Piracy is very serious these days when it comes to software. Software vendors lose a lot of money because the software is being distributed freely because customers feel that the software is too expensive. If the software vendors lower their prices it might lower the act of piracy. However, I still think the software vendors have to take the extra steps in protecting their software against illegal duplication by using different CD Copying protection and serial keys. It might seem sophisticated and impenetrable it doesn’t take long for the cracking groups to move around these barriers.

Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy/

Computer programs are valuable property and therefore subject to theft from the computer system. However, it is not allowed to copy software, or software piracy, is also the main form of theft. Software piracy by employees of the company are extensive, resulting in legal action by the Software Publishers Association, an industry association software developers, as compared to the major companies are not allowed to make a copy of approved programmes

Online piracy is commonly referred to as a threat to businesses in the creative industries. The WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (a.k.a. “the TRIPS” agreement) defines piracy as:

This statement from the government makes it seem like they have given up on on-line piracy, or they lack the sufficient resources to do anything substantial, their main target is the providers of this illegal service, the distributors and website owners of this easily obtainable free media & software.

With the use of technology over the Internet has increased chances of piracy. Software like Microsoft office, Windows has strict laws that it should not be downloaded over the Internet. However still it has been observed that many people get the pirated copy of these software by using other free software which are available over the Internet. If such cases are found by law officials in the US then strict action will be taken against it. Microsoft office and Windows are intellectual property of Microsoft and Windows respectively and should be used illegally.

The technology development of computer and communication led to increase the illegal downloading of digital multimedia (e.g. music). In general, there is no change in the behavior of buyers, but starting of internet network and uprising of computerized systems, result in latest rise in piracy.

One of the biggest inventions of the 20th century, Internet, has provided easy access to the countries across the globe to latest technologies and disseminates digitalized form of information to every corner of the world. Though Internet has benefited the copyright owners by providing a wider market for their works, the flipside of the same coin makes these works vulnerable to illegal access and distribution ; resulted online piracy being one of the most interesting

Software piracy is said to be so profitable in many countries, especially in China. It is even said that organized criminal groups use the proceeds from software piracy to pay for terrorist actions overseas (Software Piracy Problem in China). In 2013, a Chinese national was sentenced to prison in the U.S. for selling more than $100 million worth of pirated software from American companies, including Agilent Technologies, Inc. from his home in China (Feeley).

As broadband internet technology continues to flourish, the price of software continues to increase. Some people have the opinion that software costs too much which leads them to pirate software at a lower price as it is expensive to purchase it commercially [9]. This is beneficial to the people that suffer financially and don’t have a good paid job which is likely to help them with the cost of the software. Pirating software also comes in handy for the university students as it is not always available at low cost and most good software costs hundreds to thousands and this is the amount that students can’t afford when it comes to purchasing software such as Microsoft in order to get their projects and assignments done without money to purchase the original software. Therefore, software piracy casts significant benefits to those who cannot afford the software at such a great price. With some consumer software packages costing up to $500, the amount of money saved by pirating is not negligible [9]. Consumers also believe that manufactures are not hurt by pirates making illegal copies of their

In 1996 worldwide illegal copying of domestic and international software cost $15.2 billion to the software industry, with a loss of $5.1 billion in the North America alone. Some sources put the total up-to-date losses, due to software crime, as high as $4.7 trillion. On the next page is a regional breakdown of software piracy losses for 1994. Estimates show that over 40 percent of North American software company revenues are generated overseas, yet nearly 85 percent of the software industry's piracy losses occurred outside of North America. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) indicated that approximately 35 percent of the business software in the North America was obtained illegally. In