Piracy :: essays research papers

PiracyRecently, The Toronto Star published an article entitled "RCMP seizes BBS, buccaneering charges p turn backing." The RCMP have possessed all computer componentsbelonging to the "90 unification" bulletin board system in Montreal, Quebec. Theboard is accused of allowing population the opportunity to download ( give way) commercialand beta (or commercial) packet versions. I heart that the RCMP should notcharge people that atomic number 18 linked to computer piracy, because the pirated softwareoffers valuable opportunity to programmers and users. Also, revenue lost to thelarge software companies is such a downcast amount that the effect wont be greatly mat by them and so it is not worth the policing effort required to deny downthe pirates.When pirates distribute the illegal software, one could say that they arehelping, than pain in the neck the software companies. By distributing the softwareworld wide, it creates great advertisement for the software comp anies and theirproducts. Although the software comp all is losing profits from that particularversion, it could generate future gross revenue with other versions. Also, when thepirates distribute the software this could be a great spring of test data forthe software companies. This is an effective way to catch any unfounded bugs inthe software program. From debugging to hacking, hackers can benefit the most.They can take in and learn from the advancements with in the programming.So what does all this activity tell us? This tells us the people arewilling to go to great lengths to get software at a lower cost, or possibly inexchange for other software and that they are succeeding in their efforts.Although much than 50% of their software income is from other companies which donot pirate, this poses a occupation for the software industries. By fining asingle bulletin board pop of the thousands in North America, there would belittle accomplished. Not to observe the fact the it is ex tremely difficult toprove and convict people low the Copyright Act. In todays society, revenuefrom software is such a small income source for corporations such as WordPerfectCorp. These companies make their money mainly from individuals acquire extramanuals, reference material, supplementary hardware, and calling product support.Software companies are conscious of the pirate world and the changes they havemade. Some companies actually indirect request you to take the software by using theSHAREWARE concept. In SHAREWARE one gets a chance to use demo programs and thenpay for the full bribe if he feels it is worthwhile. It is a bit like testdriving a car, before one buys. In most cases, users are happy and end up