Re: SW Piracy

From: Glenn Bottoms (abotts@shelby.net)
Reply to: abotts@shelby.net & iceimt@tools.org forum
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 11:00:27 -0400


Most software piracy I see is of three types: 1) Juveniles or young adults who have a pile of disks with pirated software, almost none of which they use. 2) People, primarily teachers, who complain about the cost of software, and then make illegal copies. 3) People or organizations who don't know any better. Those who for instance think one copy on the network server allows everyone to use it.

Most piracy I see as a consultant is of the first type. Most of that is harmless to the companies, as the software is not used. Technically, there is probably a violation, but it is a technical violation that would be hard to prosecute.

Number 2 is harder to combat. Some people or organizations just don't things should have a cost. Teachers and those in service professions seem to think that everything should be given to them free. I used to be a computer dealer and had to combat this attitude.

Number 3 is rare and difficult to combat. Again cost is a barrier to fixing violations of the third type.

The second type is hard to root out, to use a Southern idiom. Many of the service professionals do not want to see anything wrong with what they are doing. Only Draconian penalties seem to give them pause. Such Draconian penalties may make these people even more hostile to intellectual property rights as just part of what they view as "greedy Capitalism." Education campaigns may make the issue clearer. They should not be campaigns that say, "You'll pay or go to jail if you pirate software." Instead, they should be advertising campaigns that stress the loss to authors and society from piracy. Examples of software that failed because of piracy would be helpful.

Glenn Bottoms abotts@shelby.net http://www.shelby.net/abotts/gbotts.htm

---------- > From: ±Ç¿Àº´ <kob@han.ac.kr>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <iceimt@talk.obgyn.net>
> Subject: SW Piracy
> Date: Monday, October 20, 1997 9:05 AM
>
> Dear Sirs,
>
> I am a professor at Handong university, Korea. I'd like to receive your
opinion on SW piracy and anti-piracy activities. >
> Your sincerely,
>
>
>
> O Byung Kwon
>
>
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