Software Piracy

Software Piracy

Software Piracy(Canadian essay)



"…. I want to impress upon honourable gentlemen who are not lawyers the fact that the question of copyright is of importance not only to lawyers, but to many people in the country1."   Copyright is, literally, the "right to copy".   The Canadian Copyright Act gives copyright owners the sole right to reproduce, perform or issue a work2.   This ensures that the creators have total control over their work and benefit completely from what they have created whether this is monetary or otherwise.   However, with advances in technology, it has become easier and easier to infringe on copyright.   One of the primary ways this has been done
is by software piracy: the illegal distribution or copying software for personal or organizational use. The illegal copying of software is one of the computer industry's most serious problems.   Software piracy has grown over time and continues to grow each year.   It threatens software companies, jobs, and causes a fluctuation in software price.   Software copying is wrong but is almost impossible to completely stop.

Understanding how software piracy came about is a very important aspect of understanding this major problem.   When computers were first being used, the major cost in computing was the hardware.   Software was relatively cheap and often unique to the physical environment in which it was running.   Computer users were generally programmers who had the knowledge to develop their own software, or use the software that came free with the computer or another source.   As computer technology grew, software became more important because computer users were no longer just programmers anymore.   People then paid programmers to develop software for those who were less experienced users.     This was after people had gotten used to the idea that software was obsolete and could be used and copied to their own disposal.   Along with this, people were used to coping audiotapes or movies off TV because they...