Реферат: Software Piracy A Big Crime With Big

Software Piracy: A Big Crime With Big Consequences Essay, Research Paper

Software Piracy: A Big Crime With Big Consequences

Imaging for a moment that you come across an advertisement saying you can

meet up with an individual who will break into a store, disarm all of the alarms

and will hold the door open for you as you walk inside and take anything you

wish. This criminal offence occurs every day on computer systems around the

world including the internet. This is a very serious problem and is very

difficult to circumvent. Every computer user is both tempted and immersed in

software piracy in its many forms. One of the most disturbing facts behind this

crime is that many people who participate in the distribution of commercial

software don’t even know they are committing a crime. Software piracy is a very

serious and widespread crime that must be acknowledged and dealt with.

Software piracy is the unauthorized duplication and or distribution of

copyrighted programs. There are two ways to be involved in software piracy.

The first is facilitation. Facilitation is the deliberate copying of copyrighted

software and distributing it. An example would be an MIT student named David

LaMacchia. This individual served and maintained a computer that was connected

to the internet that offered it’s users more than one million dollars worth of

software ‘free of charge.’ Mr. LaMacchia was caught by the authorities and was

acquitted of this piracy due to the lack of legal standards for this crime.

Another example is off local bulletin board systems. Many are run out of the

offenders homes with just a phone line, a computer and a modem. Here members of

this service can send and receive pirated software (otherwise known as ‘warez’)

as their own pace and leisure. There are not just one or two of these bulletin

boards around there are in fact many. Most reside in large cities and the

offenders are in most cases minors. As the computer gains a more stable hold on

our society these bulletin boards are replaced by the ones that are linked to

the internet. By this individuals can anonymously put out copyrighted software

for the use of any anonymous user of the internet such as the type of system