Software Piracy and International Law

Laws on software piracy

Individuals who engage in the buying , selling , producing , distribution and use of pirated software violate the existing intellectual property and copyright law in the particular country . While penalties vary from one country to another and from one case to another , the typical penalties for copyright infringement includes payment for damages and losses the company suffered because of the particular case of software piracy , as well as imprisonment . Taiwan and Korea are very strict with the observance of acquiring legal licenses for use of software (Oakes 2004 , while

countries like the US are experiencing the tightening noose of several dragnets cast by software piracy watchdog groups

Effects of software piracy

The millions of dollars that companies lose in sales annually is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discussing the effects of software piracy . Software piracy negatively affects everyone involved in this vicious cycle - from the illegal manufacturers to those who actually buy counterfeit software to the computers that will use this illegally reproduced software to the general economy of the country that is suffering from software piracy problems . According to Microsoft software piracy is the reason for lost wages as well as lost jobs , not to mention the creation of a practice that creates unfair competition and that is the reason why consumers should seriously reconsider before buying a counterfeit item that contains computer software

Computer specialists warn consumers about how using counterfeit software can present risk on the health of one 's computer . This is because the process of copying software CDs sometimes affects the way the software would function once installed . There is also a good chance that these CDs are possible carriers of virus that can infect a computer and lead to the corruption and deletion of s . And since...