Software Market and Piracy - Essay Example

Software Piracy The interesting new occurrence that has developed in the software market, software with capability of being redistributed, modifications and access to source codes, “The open Source Software” has generated a noticeable widely felt popularity and impact. On the contrary, the fact that Commercial Software is more targeted and reliable concludes the possibility that Open Source Software is not the wide-reaching solutions to the growth of embedded systems. Having both the benefits and consequences involved, it is a mere question of choice and task involved according to the wants of the user. Apart from the developments in the computer and information technology, there are some negative aspects that have taken a rise. The most common and widely gaining ground is the software theft, duplication and distribution – the software piracy. In its 2002 annual report, The Business Software Alliance (BSA) stated that 40% of software that were installed were pirated, causing a loss of $11 billion. However, in 2009 piracy increased to 43% globally. Since the advent of technology and advancement in computer systems and internet, many new things have developed and initiated with respect to making work and processes easier, human friendly and more widely accessible. The generation of Open Source Software against the commercial software has taken the software market by a raging storm, gaining popularity and taking down the use of commercial software’s. However, commercial software still is expected to become that it was targeted to. The use of the type of the software depends from the choice and task of the user. Apart from customer and user friendly software’s, the increased practices of software theft termed as software piracy and have led to the growing concerns of not only the manufacturers but also the people using pirated software. The anti-piracy campaigns and policies have not been yet effective at a very large ground. The main reason behind it is that piracy depends upon awareness of the people using it, as most of the times piracy is not considered a crime neither harm. The illegal use, distribution or copying of a software is known as software piracy. Currently, the software piracy issue is on the threshold of a prompt increase. According to the BSA, Small and Medium Business (SMB) are highly practicing illegal downloads. According to the report given by Vanson Bourne, a research company hired by BSA, it states that around 7th February, 2013 statistics, 52% of UK SMB’s used illegal software. 21% admitted using key generators while 10% un-installed the programs. In developing countries, the evolution of computers and PC shipments serves as a major cause of software piracy (Craig, Honick and Burnett, 2005). The profit that a person pirating software earns has led to the software piracy. Types of software piracy include: soft lifting - copying or installing software application, client-server overuse – multiple copies installation, more than the licenses you have paid for, Hard-disk loading - dealing in sales of illegal copies of unlicensed software, counterfeiting - the act of making a duplicate of programs as real involving emulation of product name and packaging and online piracy - illegal P2P activated downloading, encompassing unauthorized electronic downloading or distribution of copyrighted software. Currently, three major leading software companies and organizations are working towards countering software piracy, like BSA (Business Software Alliance) which aims to controls piracy theft in over 60 Countries. It helps prevent software theft by highly sophisticated enforcement programs, The SIIA’s (Software & Information Industry Association) which promotes industry wide enforcements to fight content and software piracy and FAST (Federation against Software Theft) established in 1984, aims to restrict un-authorized dealings in computer software. These organizations aim to restrict and lessen the illegal un-authorized dealing in the software market by enforcing laws, awareness, educating against piracy and by promoting effective standards and measures (Craig, Honick and Burnett, 2005). Certain effective legal enforcement and software protection strategies can be initiated to encounter piracy at a wide aspect. Some effective measures adopted can be the protection and regulation of Intellectual Property Protection: governments must insure that the copy rights of an industry’s intellectual property are protected; reducing the desire to pirate the software: low-cost, legal access and easy availability can make it less desire to pirate the software; software protection: common methods and techniques to protect software include generating of registration codes, media protection and online activation codes. All these focus on issuing combination of codes to be entered by the user to run the software. Moreover, the use of customized software drivers prohibit copying can be the most effective strategy. Many people have learnt to master software piracy and have their own companies, like e-Bay, Acortech, mPlus, Logical Plus, SoftwareOutlets.com, Rowcal Distribution, Global Impact, Directron.com, and e-Direct Software. They not only sell software illegally, but also aid in free re-distribution. Also, pirating movies and songs is a skill commonly known to all. From CD’s, DVD’s of music and movies to the most sophisticated software, the extent to which piracy can occur has been outwitted. Extensive use does mean learning and contributing. But the illegal use does not. Software piracy tends to destroy a company’s reputation and the trust of the consumer. It can spread viruses, spams and malwares from one computer to another, leading to extensive misuse rather than the effective use. On the contrary, piracy of the e-books and educational software that are not intended for profit margin, are a great way to provide the same product over a relatively cheap price. Although piracy enables extensive learning and use of the software, one must not ignore the severe damages of improper functioning of the software, outdated version, forfeit access to bug fixes and customer support and most crucial the damage of reputation, development and sales it can cause to software industries (Webber, 2004). The software which is released under the Open Source Initiative (OSI) is termed as the Open Source Software. Open Source Initiative (OSI) has a certain criteria. It is on the fulfillment of these criteria that software is licensed as Open Source software. The most important of these criteria are: freedom to customize- the software can be adapted, fixed, or bugged. The source code may be changed, fixed or altered according to the needs and the requirements of the user, enabling free redistribution- the user is entitled to redistribute as much as they want, on as many computers or machines they want on and source code access- the user can learn from it, examine it, alter, modify or work with it, all depending on the need and want of the user. Apart from being free for the user to use it, alter it or redistribute it as much as they want. However, protection in terms of author’s goal differs. The type of protection an author wants depends on the goal and purpose they want to fulfill through their software. Such target is achieved by using different license recognized and accepted by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The most commonly accepted and used open source software license are: BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution): It imposes no conditions on the user; they are even free to sell or charge for redistribution. The main goal of the authors using this license is to make their work recognized, GPL (GNU General Public License): Binary distribution is enabled, only if the availability of source code is guaranteed. Combination with other software is possible only if that software is also licensed under GPL and MPL (Mozilla Public License): To redistribute the code of Mozilla, Netscape initiated this license. It is similar to GPL but is more “enterprise oriented” Open Source Software are not only cheap, user friendly like AUREA or free in the form of redistribution access and changes. They also serve in not only promoting creativity, but also helps a community to unite together in solving day-to-day common problems together. Support options, cost, reliability, flexibility, and security are some of the bonus points that has led to the increased use and gaining popularity of the Open Source Software. The capability of many developers to use it, modify it and redistribute it, gives users or even common people a wide array aspect of security and troubleshooting, as they already know or have seen the use of such software beforehand. People are not scared or worried of using Open Source Software as they know that billions of people are using it, and even if something goes wrong like the data loss or virus embedded in the system, the loss is none as they never paid even a penny for it and this in turn compromises on the loss made (Johns, 2009). Apart from being beneficial for the consumers, the software market is also at a certain profit. Involvement of a software company to contribute with competitors to an open source project helps the company to have an account of user experience and then add features to make consumers choose the modified software over another one. The software companies make more money from support than from commercializing the software license, as free software develops the support market. Adjacent market can also come into existence with the release of open source software. This strategy is best put up by Google, whose free Android software has put down Apple’s domination. Moodle Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is one of the best examples to view the wide array and beneficial use of an open Source Software by a community. Across 150 UK education developers, The University of London Computer Centre hosts Moodle for 2 million people. Both on the server and on the desktop, over 50% of education institutions use open source software. The acceptance and profitability that comes with using an Open Source Software is gaining enterprise momentum, but one should not forget that what is best may not be perfect. The use of everything depends upon the type of needs and requirements of the user (Feller, 2007); the commercially purchased software is also popular for differential uses and target oriented tasks. The software that can be used only when purchased are termed as commercial software. Either in performance or footprint, open source software can never compete with the highly sophisticated and directed purposely written commercial programs (Weber, 2004). The open source software does not have the market approach as they are not targeted to fulfill the needs of the large growing software market. The constant modification and alteration in open source software can lead to un-proven code. Trusted companies then are feared to use them. Many commercial operating system companies can deliver middle ware and protocol stacks, all of which are protected and bonded to a specific compiler, owing to rapid development with minimum risk. On the other hand, advantage of Commercial software in terms of providing access to bug fixes and customer support is a very strong feature that outwits many company’s thoughts about using and Open Source Software. The type of functionality, features and purpose required, feeds the requirement of the type of the software you want to use. If stability, quality, security and support are required then commercial Software are best suited to serve this purpose. However, if low-cost, flexible and customized needs are to be served then open source software is the best available option. References Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Craig, P., Honick, R., & Burnett, M. (2005) Software piracy exposed. Rockland, MA, Syngress. [Online] http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=149578. Feller, J. (2007) Open source development, adoption and innovation IFIP Working Group 2.13 on Open Source Software, June 11-14, 2007, Limerick, Ireland. New York, Sprigner. [Online] http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=645371. Johns, A. (2009) Piracy: the intellectual property wars from Gutenberg to Gates. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Weber, S. (2004) The success of open source. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. Read More