Topic 38

Software piracy by Ken Moyer

Software Piracy means the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted patented material. Software piracy is by law illegal. But it is debatable. Some people think its okay and some people don’t. There are a number of social issues about software piracy.

A lot of people commit software piracy. A lot of these people are aware of it, but they are able to persuade themselves into doing it. This is because they don’t have such a high morale. They don’t feel any guilt about committing such a crime. This is partly the society’s fault. It is proven that the environment people are raised in helps create the characteristics of the people. If people can persuade themselves into doing something bad, then the society has a problem. Society should teach their children to have a good morale by creating a nice environment that will make a good example. The social issue is that why doesn’t the society try better to make more ethical people to decrease software piracy.

There are also a group of people who commit software piracy who have difficulties distinguishing between freeware, shareware and commercial software. This means that the society is not clear about these distinctions. I am sure a lot of educated people also do not know the difference. The society in my opinion is not putting in enough effort into this. The society should put in more effort to try and distinguish these freeware, shareware and commercial software.

Most students don’t have the money to buy new software. If it is illegal to make copies, then most students will not be able to afford the new software, or even the old software. This is a problem, especially to university students, because students are not able to obtain a lot of these software. The social issue is why the society doesn’t put in more effort to try and distribute software to the students. I am sure that the quality of education will increase if students have better tools. Better education, in the long run, will make society better off.

Software budgeting is often inadequate for the consumers. A lot of companies buy low quantities of software even if the employees need it. So, the employees steal the software, and then delete it when there done with it. If companies spent more money on software, then there will be less stealing.

Software are constantly updated. Most software has at least on update every month. After the upgrade, the older software are not worth a lot. Some people believe that it is okay to steal old software because it doesn’t have much or any value to it. This is a very debatable issue, but I believe that if it is illegal to steal new software, then it would be illegal to steal old software.

There is a difference between theft and software piracy. In theft a good is lost by someone. But, in software piracy there are no products that are actually gone. Therefore, some people believe that software piracy is not an act of stealing. But information is being copied. A lot of people also believe that the producer of software should be making a profit for sharing their software. This a very debatable issue.

Some people believe that software should not be priced unless the consumer is making a profit from it. For example, if a person uses a software to make profit, then the producer of that software should get a piece of that profit. But, if the person was using the software for educational purposes, then the producer should have the morale to share his/her software for free.

As information and computer technology develop more, software piracy will become a bigger issue when it already is a big enough issue. The society should understand the importance of this issue and should think of a solution. In the long run it will make the society better off.

3 Comments -Show Original Post Collapse comments

taro kondo11 said...

I agree that sofware piracy is a big issue. Most of the time I cannot obtain the most recent software because it is too expensive. So, sometimes Im tempted to download some software too instead of buying it.

December 11, 2006 6:40 PM

harsh said...

I really like how you decided to be on the pro-software piracy side. Your arguments for software piracy were very convincing especially the one related to education. Either the society finds a way to distribute the new software cheaply to students or let them make illegal copies. I don't, however, agree that software piracy should be made legal because companies do lose a lot of money on this. Therefore, they should either decrease the price of their products or accept the piracy!

December 12, 2006 2:05 AM

Simon Ruiz said...

As you have mentioned that the software piracy involves impact in education, specifically to university students. In what circumstances do the university students need to acquire many of those softwares?

December 14, 2006 5:45 AM