Computer Software Piracy And Its Impact On The International Economy :: essays research papers fc

Computer Software Piracy and its Impact on the multinational Economy     The PC industry is over twenty years old. In those twenty years,evolving parcel program technology brings us faster, more sophisticated, versatile andeasy-to-use products. Business software allows companies to save time, effortand money. Educational computer programs teach basic skills and complicatedsubjects. Home software now includes a wide variety of programs that enhance theusers productiveness and creativity. The industry is thriving and users stand tobenefit along with the publishers. The SPA (Software Publishers Association)reports that the job of software theft has grown, and threatens to preventthe development of new software products. Unauthorized duplicate of softwareis known as software piracy which is a "Federal offense that affects everyone("Software Use..." Internet). The following research examines software piracyin its confused forms, its impact on the end user and the international industryas a whole, and the progress that has been made in alleviating the problem.     Software piracy harms all software companies and ultimately, the enduser. Piracy results in higher prices for honest users, reduced levels ofsupport and delays in funding and development of new products, causing theoverall breadth and whole step of software to suffer ("What is... Internet). Eventhe users of unlawful copies suffer from their own illegal actions they receiveno documentation, no customer support and no information about(predicate) product updates("Software Use..." Internet).      The White Paper says that while virtually every software publisherexpresses concern about their software from unauthorized duplication, over time, umpteen have simply accepted the so-called "fact" that such duplication isunavoidable. This has created an atmosphere in which software piracy is commonlyaccepted as " h onorable another cost of doing business" ("With the Growth..."Internet).     In a brochure published by the SPA it is stated that a major problemarises from the fact that virtually batch do not even know they are breaking the law."Because the software industry is relatively new, and because copying softwareis so easy, many people are either unaware of the laws governing software use orchoose to ignore them" ("To Copy or not to Copy" Internet).     Robert Perry states that much of the problem of software theft arisesfrom the way the software industry developed. In the past, when a software firmspent millions of dollars to write a program for a mainframe computer, it knewit would sell a handful of copies. It licensed each copy to protect itsownership rights and control the use of each copy. That is easy to do with onlya few copies of a program. It is impossible for a software company to handle