Software Piracy

In his essay about software piracy, Peder Jonsson writes about what software piracy is and the many details which are involved in it. He describes what it is, the forms of piracy, what to look for in pirated software, why piracy exists, and the effects it has on the economy.

First, Jonnson describes exactly what pirating software is. He says that software piracy is when software gets copied without permission from the copyright holder. Furthermore, the person who holds the copyright will not get any reward for their product. Also, Jonnson says that if someone is caught pirating software, then they could get serious fines and/or jail time.

Pirating software comes in many different forms, as Jonnson describes in his essay. One form is softlifting. This is when someone purchases one legit copy of the software, and then loads it onto many different computers. A second form is hard disk loading; when unauthorized copies of software are placed on the hard disk when you buy a new personal computer. This method is used by computer dealers to sell computers at low prices, but give their customers an added value. A third method of computer piracy described by Jonnson is renting the software. This means that you use the software temporarily and then give it back. It is the same thing as renting a video from a video store, but only this is very illegal. Downloading software is also a form of pirating software. One example of this is going to a web site and then downloading the software onto your computer and using it. Lastly, software counterfeiting is also a big problem with software piracy. Burning a software disk and selling it to someone is an example of this. These five ways are the main ways in which people pirate software.

If you have pirated software, there are ways to tell that it is not real. One way is that it will not have adequate documentation with it such as instructions. Another way is that you will not get the technical support that you would usually get with the real software. Lastly, since the software is copied and the real version, you will not get the software updates needed for some programs.

Software piracy is so common because for one reason, people think that it is alright to get the software from friends as long as no one is gaining profit. Also, they believe that it is alright for them to do it because everyone else does it.

When people pirate software, it hurts the economy greatly. In 1994, software companies lost eight billion dollars. This causes a number of things to happen in the economy. First, because the software companies have lost so much money, they have to cut employees because they cannot afford to pay them. Also, to make their money back, the companies charge more for the software. This hurts the economy greatly since computers are used by almost everyone these days.