Reasons of Software Pirates - Research Paper Example

Reasons of Software Pirates Introduction The nature of piracy is detrimental to the fundamental aspects of the society. Therefore, the presence of intellectual property rights is essential in order to sustain innovation and creativity among the producers in the society. In the technological world, software piracy is considered as one of the greatest threats to the software makers. This type of piracy has been going on for a long time, and can now be easily done and manipulated by the person who has the Internet and is willing to pirate softwares. With the timeliness of this type of action, this paper anchors on evaluating the reasons behind software piracy by the software pirates. Software Piracy In brief, software piracy is used as a universal term in referring to duplicating computer software. Nonetheless, piracy in this term has three determining factors. In this case piracy is categorized as commercial, corporate, and softlifting. In more specific terms, commercial piracy is the act of selling illegally duplicated software. On the other hand, corporate software can be defined as the usage of software by institutions, such as a business or academic institutions, which are not licensed. The final category is softlifting which can be equated to shoplifting. This occurs when an individual copies a software or backup copy from a friend, his or her employer, or from an educational institution (Hornik, 1994). Reason Behind Software Piracy On a personal level, there are different factors that push an individual to pirate a software. Some of these factors are also presented by these individuals as their arguments in order to justify their actions. In relation to this, most of the individual pirates do not have any public awareness of the copyright laws which are attached to a specific software. For this reason, many users do not give full credit to these laws because these are only stated during the process of installing the software. In this case, the individual does not give attention to the licensing agreement which makes ineffective. Therefore, individual software pirates justify their actions by the lack of public information regarding the licenses and laws attached to the pirated software. In addition, due to this inefficient form of educating the user or the public per se, software pirates then blame the inability of software companies in guarding their products. As most of the software pirate argues that these software companies deserve this type of treatment due to their lack of security (Karakaya & Uluturk, 2011; Hinduja, 2003). Another justification used by many software pirates in order to lessen the stigma brought by their actions is that the prices of the softwares in the market are high or too expensive. It has been reasoned out that the high price of the software does not equate for the value and use of the software per se; therefore, most of the users resort to piracy. Other software pirates even blame the software companies by using their product in order to gain more profit. In addition, software pirates also justify that due to the high profit the companies acquire from their sales, pirating their software or creating a crack for other people to use will not harm their profitability (Karakaya & Uluturk, 2011; Hinduja, 2003). Aside from these, the economic standing of a society is also used by software pirates in order to justify their actions. As in the case of Pakistan, the people validate their act of software piracy due to the economic conditions of the population who needs access to information at a lesser cost or even for free. Similarly, in Far Eastern countries, the software pirates justify their actions by citing that their disposable incomes are lesser compared to those in the first world countries. It was also found out that if their disposable incomes would increase, they will be able to pay for extra services that software companies have to offer. Aside from this, most of the Asian cultures do not have creative work or tools for creativity or information are not usually inclined with piracy protection. This is because copying or imitating a work is a sign of complement (A. Butt & A. I. Butt, 2007; C. C Chen, C. P. Chen, & Yeh, 2010). Therefore most of the software pirates justifies their actions as a cause of their negative economic standing. Aside from this, culture also is considered as a vital factor in influencing people to do such crimes. In the light of social reasoning and justification, software pirates also do this crime because their family or their environment approves of their action. With this on hand, an individual assumes that he or she is not doing anything wrong or unethical because everybody in his or her circle is also doing it. There is a collective action done by the individuals which make them assume that there is nothing wrong with it. This occurs especially when software piracy results in a positive effect. For instance, a student had pirated a software in order to earn high grades for a presentation or a homework, which leads the piracy act to be useful and helpful rather than illegal (Karakaya & Uluturk, 2011; Hinduja, 2003). Aside from these, the justification used by software pirates is that there is a lower risk for a person to be penalized in the act of piracy. This is one of the factors why most of the software pirates prefer cracking softwares and sharing it to others because of the lesser risk compared to buying a software at a high price. Also, most of the governments are aware of the fact that the software pirates also generate income for the economy, which will eventually do good for the population at large. With this, many government entities still do not have specific criteria in order to combat software piracy (Jaafar, Ramayah, & Teng, 2008; Karakaya & Uluturk, 2011). Conclusion The justification used by software pirates must be considered by software companies in order to combat such crime. It may be true that this type of crime negatively affects their businesses; however, the feasibility and the truthfulness of the reasons behind such crimes must also be considered. There must be a meeting point for the users and the software companies where both will gain optimum use and profit for the softwares being manufactured. References Butt, A., & Butt, A. I. (2007). Proceedings from IRMA International Conference: Managing Worldwide Operations and Communication with Information Technology. Canada: Idea Group Inc. Chen, C. C., Chen, C. P., & Yeh, C. Y. (2010). Determinants of software piracy: Evidence from far east countries. Journal of International and Global Economic Studies, 3, 53-62. Hinduja, S. (2003). Trend and patterns among online software pirates. Ethics and Information Technology, 5, 49-61. Hornik, D. M. (1994). Combating software piracy: The softlifting problem. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 7, 377-417. Jaafar, M., Ramayah, T., & Teng, T. W. (2008). The intention to use pirated software: A study of undergraduate students in a public institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 6, 4-12. Karakaya, M., & Uluturk, B. (2011). Individual and social reason behind software piracy: An analysis of previous studies. International Security and Terrorism, 2, 59-72. Read More