What Is Computer Piracy
The computer piracy represents the illegal copying of original programs or counterfeiting and unauthorized distribution of computer programs. The software piracy is referring also to the situation when a person executes more copies than it is allowed, or when they borrow a copy of a program to somebody else.
When we buy a program, we actually buy the license to use that software. We do not have total rights over the whole program and we are obliged to respect the license agreement before almost all software installations. The cost and real value of a software product consists not in the box where the CD ROM is in, but in the code lines that it contains, millions of instructions which tell the computer what to execute.
The software piracy is affecting everyone, the users, the honest dealers, the software industry, local industry and national economy. Today we are more vulnerable to the software piracy because of the mass propagation of personal computers, which make computer programs and other form of intellectual property to be pirated and distributed easier, on extended geographical areas.
The spread. The piracy represents a major preoccupation for the software industry in the whole world. In average, for every licensed copy sold, there is at least one pirated copy. In some countries there are made up to 99 unauthorized copies for every license copy.
The involvement of the Microsoft company in user education referring to the software piracy and preventive actions on developing this phenomenon which has increased significantly in the last few years, in order to keep up with the increasing impact of the piracy over the world economy.
The software industry contributes significantly to the world wide economic prosperity. The piracy undermines the value and the integrity of the programs, is threatening the technical innovations and diminishes the created economical opportunities, exposing in the same time the users to risks.
Which is the Microsoft’s position in software piracy ? Microsoft is trying to protect its users and authorized dealers from the negative effects of the software piracy. Acting independently, but through organizations like Business Alliance, Microsoft is fighting against the piracy through many ways. Besides the educational activity, the company has enhanced its efforts using a legal framework against wide counterfeiting, especially against the ones belonging to the organized crimes.
Microsoft fights against software piracy through:
- Education and information efforts. Through actions like local marketing campaigns, Microsoft informs its users about the negative impact of the piracy and the advantages of using genuine software.
- Juridical actions. Microsoft is following the civil and criminal law procedures and encourages the authorities to open juridical actions against the ones which are counterfeiting and illegal copying software. It is important to maintain the integrity of the distribution channel and to insure a safe business environment for the dealers which are following the rules.
- Public administration initiatives. Microsoft is acting with the government to strengthen the laws of copyrighting, protecting the programs as intellectual property, and to increase the penalties in case of violation of the law.
- Security features of the products. Microsoft has developed many anti piracy characteristics in order to help the users and dealers to distinguish original Microsoft software from the counterfeit ones.
What is the impact of piracy on us ? There are many aspects you can think of, like user level losses, negative impact over both national and local economy, taxes income losses and staff reductions, the resellers, etc.
Written by hugepedia, date Mar 22, 2010 in Computers, Software topic
one comment
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