The Pros And Cons Of Software Piracy

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Recommended: Software piracy in society

Donovan Feenstra
Business: It’s Legal, Ethical and Social Environment
Mr. Lee Gilbert
November 6, 2014
Software Piracy
What is Software Piracy?
Software piracy is the illegal copying of software for distribution within an organization, to friends, clubs or other groups, and also for duplication and resale. Although it may seem innocent enough to install an application on additional machines (which is also called “softloading” or “softlifting”), the profits of software companies become severely damaged. More than $11 billion is lost to piracy every year, and it is a worldwide problem. (Apple Inc.) Because software is valuable and is very easy to create a copy of it, this problem is widespread. Software piracy is a crime, and there is a copyright …show more content…

The commercial value of all that unlicensed software totalled more than $51 billion.” (Business Software Alliance) They also said that the impact of software piracy goes beyond the revenues lost to the software industry. Local software distributors are hurt and cannot create jobs, and they also cannot generate tax revenues for governments. From this study, “The Economic Benefits of Reducing Software Piracy” documents were created. Their main findings are as follows:
• “Reducing the piracy rate for PC software by 10 percentage points — 2.5 points per year for four years — would create $142 billion in new economic activity while adding nearly 500,000 new high-tech jobs and generating roughly $32 billion in new tax revenues by 2013.
• On average, more than 80 percent of the benefits of reducing PC software piracy accrue to local economies — and in some cases it is more than 90 percent.
• Front-loading the gain by lowering piracy 10 points in the first two years of a four-year period would compound the economic benefits by 36 percent, producing $193 billion in new economic activity by 2013 and generating $43 billion in new tax …show more content…

(n.d.). Piracy Prevention. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from Apple: https://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/piracy.html

Business Software Alliance. (n.d.). Piracy Impact Study. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from BSA: http://portal.bsa.org/piracyimpact2010/

Claburn, T. (2011, November 11). Pirated Software Hurts U.S. Jobs, Economy, Microsoft Says. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from Information Week: Dark Reading: Pirated Software Hurts U.S. Jobs, Economy, Microsoft Says

Heallen, J. (2013, November 23). Army Pays Software Co. $50M To End Copyright Suit. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from Law360: http://www.law360.com/articles/491294/army-pays-software-co-50m-to-end-copyright-suit

Kerr, D. (2013, July 9). Microsoft settles thousands of software piracy cases. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from CNet: http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-settles-thousands-of-software-piracy-cases/

Shoup, T. E. (n.d.). Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from Santa Clara University: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v8n3/faqs.html

United States of America. (n.d.). Copyright Law of the United States of America. Retrieved November 16, 2014 from United States Copyright Office:

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