The Identification and Description of the Issue of Copyright Law

Identification and Description of the Issue Copyright law are perhaps the law whthatre breached the most by an individual on a daily bases. This is because one might not know to be informed about his law or because not much is done to enforce these laws. Also, some countries of the world have no Copyright laws. Software Piracy is a breach of copyright law as one copies data contained on the medium onto another medium without the consent of the owner of the Software.

When one buys software one buys not the software content and therefore it isn’t one’s property. Instead one buys the license to use the software by licensing agreement. Software companies invest a lot of time and money in creating Software and company R relies on the sales of the Software for its survival. If illegal copies are made of Software the companies earn no money and could therefore be forced into bankruptcy. Software Piracy can be compared to robbing as one is stealing the goods of someone else and using them without paying both emit.

Up to 13 Billions dollars are lost in computer piracy yearly to overcome these costs the costsanyise forced to raise the prices of their product. Brand names are properties of their respected companies and they have the right to protect their properties.

Understanding of the IT background of the Issue Software is contained on a disc or a CD-ROM. PirPirates’py can easily be made of Software on the disc by copying from one disc to another disc.

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For CD-ROM one needs a CD-ROM burner or one copies the content onto a large hard disc and then onto a floppy disc. There are some underground bulletin boards ( BBS ) that contain pirate software. A user who logs on to one of these BBS can download the Full version of Pirate Software provided one too can give something in return. On the Intel, rent there are binary newsgroups such as alt .binaries.warez, Www pages, and FTP sites that also contain Pirate Software. On the Newsgroup,p the Files aresendd upon request from anonymous users. As a result, people who have access to the Internet can retrieve this Software Program free of charge. The person posting the Pirate software could be from a country that has no copyright laws.

These methods used in Software Piracy are hard to stop because of the fact it is done on the Internet and between individuals from different counties. Buying one legitimate copy of a Software package and then offering it over an internal network so that it can be accessed by more than one individual at the same time on a different computer is another form of Software Piracy.

Analysis of the Impact of the Issue Software program is a service just like any other service the difference e that this service comes on a medium from which one can make copies. Software are could be judged as beginning expensively but one wants them but doesn’t want to pay for it or can’t afford to therefore one could be judged as beginning a theft. Office 97 from Microsoft required 3 years to develop and Microsoft invested Millions of Dollars. Microsoft will rely the pon the legitimate sale of this product for income and upon that judge on future versions of their product. If people don’t pay for the program but make pirate copies Microsoft doesn’t earn a cent and therefore combed ba e force, not to make e futversionssion of the product. This would mean that the Computer Industry growth would be halted and that one will not be expecting newer technology in Software as the Companies will not have the initiative to bring out the better product they don’t get anything out of it. Unfortunately, many people aren’t able to see these as many pirates copies are made but also more importantly used. Society doesn’t see Software Pirates as thieves or criminals that could be because one to makes illegal copies in order not to pay.

An Economical, this means that if a company can’t make money it will eventually have to go bankrupt thThisould means that people will lose their jobs. The solution to Problems arising from the Issue of Software piracy will have to be fought on 2 different levels the first level will be the political and the second one will be the technological level. On the political level, one will have to pass tougher legislation against Software pirates. Also, the government shoumakekes regulate with other governments regarding Software piracy and encourage them to be through Software Pirates and try to combat them. Appropriate action should be taken against countries that fail to do so. On the technological level, one should consider inserting “Harder” Copy protection on the Software product. One such method could be that once the Installation of the Program has been completed one has to register the product and receive a code and each code begins differently according to different variables. Some Software programs have copy protection on them but all of them are cracked very quickly by hackers and therefore it to unlikely that any new copy protection will not be cracked. Too much copy protection could drive away legitimate consumers. Till now politicians haven’t looked into the problem of Software piracy and Copyrights very thoroughly as they think that there are bigger problems to solve. Once legislation is passed passedople made aware that Software Piracy is a crime one could see a fall in Software Piracy.

Dealing with other coucountriesvolves a lot of bureaucracy but also a committed government. For anything to occur on the political level could take years for any effects to be seen. It has the greatest chance of solving the problem in the long run. On the technological side, one could solve the problem only one the short term but implementation would be fast.

Sources

1. Internet Page www.pcworld.com/News December 96.
2. Business Software Alliance Information Sheet on Software Piracy Computer Ethics.
3. Tom Forester &Perry Morrison Chapter3 “Software Theft” page 51-72.
4. CNN Computer Connection December 96 – January 97.
5. PC Magazine entire 96 Volume Reuters InfoWorld, Vol.19, No.6.
6. Reuters 6 Feb. 97 Media Daily, Jan 30, 1997 Article on FBI crackdown on Software Pirates.