Software Piracy

Paper Summary:

An analysis of software piracy from an economic point of view. The paper provides charts of losses incurred by software companies due to piracy and domestic copying. It also looks at the ethical problems of software piracy.

From the Paper:

"Software is a term that is essentially synonymous with computer programs. Software is simply a set of instructions that cause the hardware (the physical machines that we see on the top of our desks) to do the things that we want them to do. Anyone with any amount of experience in dealing with computers knows that software comes in an almost uncountable variety of different types of programs. The two major types of programs are operating systems, which control the basic workings of a computer, and application software, which addresses the innumerable multitude of specific tasks for which people use computers, from classifying recipes to playing Tomb Raider. While system software often handles essential (but to the average user invisible and actually pretty dull) electronic chores such as maintaining disk files and managing the screen) application software performs word processing, manages databases and allows people like me to play really cool games. System software is less subject to piracy than is application software for at least two separate reasons (www.msnbc.com). The first is that nearly every computer today (at least those sold in the First World) come complete with systems software that is up-to-the-minute so there is simply no reason to copy it from someone else."

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