Moawad,+Monica

Monica Moawad Prof. Gail Benick and Michael Jones CCT205 05 February 2009 Individual Research Assignment:

**Software Piracy** __History of Software Piracy__ What is piracy? What is software piracy? Piracy is the act of using a production without the permission from the creator, and it is a copy infringement (Merriam-Webster Online). Software piracy is one of the types of piracy. Software piracy is an illegal act of copying as well as using software from a person who originally purchased it for personal or commercial use (Goode and Cruise 174). An example of software privacy is borrowing a CD of the Adobe Illustrator software from someone who has originally purchased it in order to copy it to your own computer for later use. Before the Computer Software Copyright Act of 1980 was implemented, copying software was not considered an illegal act (Craig, Honick, and Burnett 20). After the Computer Software Copyright Act of 1980 was implemented, software was considered an intellectual property which led the act of copying software to be considered illegal (Craig, Honick, and Burnett 20). Personal computers were available in the late 70s. Some computer geeks who had personal computers were able to gain access to different types of software (Craig, Honick, and Burnett 20). Computer geeks were involved in activities where they would share software of one another. This gathering has led to the emergence of piracy. Computer geeks pirated software in order to create games. At first, software pirates used the Bulletin Board System (BBS) to share with each other different types of software (Craig, Honick, Burnett 22). Software pirates shifted their use of BBS to the use the Internet after the emergence of ISDN connections. (Craig, Honick, and Burnett 28). The fast connection the Internet provided with ISDN which led software pirates to use the Internet as a tool for software pirating. Software piracy was beneficial in guiding people with access to personal computers in developing different software, but it also was used to break into to software created by others. When more people were involved in software pirating, this had a bad impact on the software industry (Craig, Honick, Burnett 25). Even though by 1994 law enforcement agencies arrested several people involved in software piracy, the cases were too expensive to be held in courts (Craig, Honick, Brunett 26). Other people who are involved in software piracy are people within organizations, and people in education institutes. Later, software piracy was used for other purposes such as for commercial use rather than for personal use. People still use it for themselves or to share copies of software for free over the Internet, but people are nowadays trying to profit from this process.

__Types of Software Piracy__ The types of software piracy according to the article “Types of Software Piracy” by Dan Vekhter and Jim Peng are the following: 1.  Softlifiting or softloading: the type of software piracy that involves the act of sharing a copy of software that was originally purchased with others. This type of software piracy is practiced by college students, and businesses. 2.  Hard disk loading: the type of software piracy that involves the act of loading a copy of software without an authorized permission from the software developer on a computer that will be sold. This is often practiced by people who deal with hardware. 3.  Renting: the type of software piracy that involves the act of using a rented copy of software for personal use without permission from the software developer. An example would be a person making copies of rented copy of software then providing the copies of the software to friends. 4.  OEM unbundling: the type of software piracy that involves the act of selling an software that has been unbundled from the original hardware it was bundled to without permission, OEM is short for Original Equipment Manufacturer. 5.  Counterfeiting: the type of software piracy that involves the act of producing copies that resemble a specific software, but are not actually the exact same as the original software. An example would be selling copies that resemble a specific software in a package that resemble the package of the original software. 6.  Online piracy: the type of software piracy that involves the act of exchanging copies of software over the Internet. Online piracy emerged from the increase in the speed of Internet connection, which did not exist at the early stage of software piracy.

__Current News on Software Piracy__ There is news that states that an economic downturn can lead to an increase in software piracy because individuals, and businesses start to look for cost-efficient ways to use software and other things ( Savvas 2008). Online copies of software can still be easily tracked, and obtained. Nowadays, there are websites that offer a copy of software for free through the process of downloading. Brothersoft.com is an example of a website that provides free software downloads. __The Point of Views on Software Piracy__ Some people saw software piracy as a technology that provides them free things rather than see it as a copyright infringement (Hermida 2005). People thought copying software could benefit their own purposes, and personal use. This illegal act poses as a threat to software industries because they cannot benefit from the software they develop. People involved in associations that try to prevent cybercrime by proposing laws and Acts also see software piracy as an illegal act, and a part of cybercrime. There are still arguments of whether software piracy is ethical, and unethical. __Some Cases Regarding Software Piracy__ A current case on software piracy involves a man called Jeremiah Mondello who was sentenced to prison for 48 years because he was selling copies of software on eBay (Hachman 2008). This shows that people tell now display illegal acts by getting involved in copy infringements.

Works Cited "piracy." __Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary__. 2009.  Merriam-Webster Online. 01 February 2009 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy Hachman, Mark. "Software Pirate Sentenced to Four Years - News and Analysis by PC Magazine." __PC Magazine - Computer, Software, Hardware and Electronics Reviews, Downloads, News and Opinion__. 25 July 2008. 02 Feb. 2009 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326494,00.asp Hermida, Alfred. "BBC NEWS | Technology | Software piracy 'seen as normal'" __BBC NEWS | News Front Page__. 23 June 2005. 01 Feb. 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4122624.stm Honick, Ron, and Paul Craig. __Software Piracy Exposed__. Ed. Mark Burnett. New York: Syngress P, 2005. Savvas, Antony. "Economic downturn may lead to more software piracy | 14 Jul 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com." __Computer Weekly__. 14 July 2008. 02 Feb. 2009http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/07/14/231463/economic-downturn-may-lead-to-more-software-piracy.htm Sigi Goode, Sam Cruise. "What Motivates Software Crackers? " __Journal of Business Ethics__ 65.2 (2006): 173-201. __ABI/INFORM Global__. ProQuest. 02 Feb. 2009 http://www.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ Vekhter, Dan, and Jim Peng. "Software Piracy." __Stanford CSE__. 02 Feb. 2009 http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-99-00/software-piracy/mainframe.html