Computer Software Should be Free

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Computer Software Should be Free

Free is a word that everyone in the world loves to hear, whether you are in the United States or Bangladesh. Usually when something is advertised as “free” there is some sort of a catch. Whether there are hidden shipping and handling fees or hidden commitments, something almost always gets you. The word free is not a word that is normally associated with computers and computer software, until now. If you know the right places to look on the Internet, whether legal or illegal, a person can find the software they are looking for. Considering that many things people want for their computer tend to be expensive this a great option for them. Organizations are trying to crack down on people getting things for free, but the Internet is too vast to regulate all of the sites that allow free usage of things normally paid for. Napster is a good example of a site that got shut down for allowing users to download music for free. Many views can be taken on whether or not this should be regulated. In this paper I will be discussing whether or not all things on the computer should be free.

Software applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office can be expensive. So instead of buying them people go to websites and download them for free. This is a growing practice among many people in all countries. So it raises the question should all software be free. Many people argue that it should be free because everyone gets it for free anyway. Organizations like CAAST [1] and FAST [2] try to regulate the number of thefts in there countries. In Canada it has seemed to work over time, as numbers of thefts have dropped for the first time in four years. FAST reports that 26% of all software being used is illegal. These organizations can only hope to limit the number of illegal software downloads in their respective countries, which really is quite miniscule in the overall picture of software piracy.

Music on the Internet is another big issue among consumers and the artists that compose them. Napster was the biggest site for downloading mp3’s, but was shutdown because of a big push by the rock group Metallica.

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