Software Piracy :: essays research papers

software program plagiarisationWhat is Software PiracyThe PC industry is just over 20 years old. In those 20 years, both the qualityand quantity of available software programs adjudge increased dramatic all in ally.Although approximately 70% of the worldwide market is today supplied bydevelopers in the United States, significant development work is occurring in gain of nations around the world. But in both the United States and abroad,unauthorized write of personal computer software is a serious problem. On add up, for any authorized copy of personal computer software in use, atleast one unauthorized copy is made. Unauthorized copying is cognize as softwarepiracy, and in 1994 it cost the software industry in excess of US$15 billion.Piracy is widely practiced and widely tolerated. In some countries, legalprotection for software is nonexistent (i.e., Kuwait) in others, laws areunclear (i.e. Israel), or not enforced with sufficient committedness (i.e., thePRC). Significant pira cy losses are suffered in virtually both region of theworld. In some areas (i.e., Indonesia), the rate of unauthorized copies isbelieved to be in excess of 99%.Why do People Use Pirated Software?A major reason for the use of pirated software is the determines of theREAL thing. salutary walk into a CompUSA, Electronics Boutique, Computer City,Egghead, etc and you volition notice the expensive price tags on copies of the mostcommonly used programs and the hottest games. Take the recent midwestern United States Microholiday catalogue for example and notice the prices. Microsoft Windows 95 $94,Microsoft blot 95 $224, Microsoft Visual C++ $250, Borland C++ $213, CorelDraw 7 $229, Corel dominance Professional 7 $190, Lotus Smartsuite 96 $150,Microsoft Flight Simulator95 $50, Warcraft 2 $30. The listen goes on and on andthe prices for the programs listed to a higher place were only upgrade versions. Users ofthe software listed above include anywhere from large companies like AT&T t oyourself, the average user at home. Although a $30 game like Warcraft 2 doesntseem like much, by the time you finish reading this paper, it will seem like afortune.Ease of AvailabilitySince the law states all the way that making a copy of what you ownand distributing it or installing more(prenominal) than one copy of one piece of software on ii separate computers is illegal, then why do the average Joes like you and usstill do it? There are many answers to that question and all of them seemlegitimate except that no answers can be lawfully justified. A friend borrowinganother friends Corel draw or Windows 95 to install on their own PC is socommon that the egress of piracy probably doesnt even come to mind right outside(a) or