Piracy In The 21st Century :: essays research papers fc

Merriam-Websters Collegiate dictionary defines piracy as, an bite of robbery on the high seas or an act resembling such robbery (885). From this we can define parcel piracy as an act of robbery on the information superhighway. Many people do not see it as such. Even though the average soul would never consider going into a convenience store and take a stick of gum, many spend a penny no qualms about larceny thousands of dollars worth of softw be. In a study done by the Canadian Alliance Against computer software program Theft, 43 percent of adult Canadians who were asked thought that pirating software for personal use was OK. This feeling has come about in several(prenominal) ways. Older computer users, with Unix backgrounds, remember many of the applications they used as supererogatoryware. package pirating also results from users having access to freely downloadable applications, evaluation copies, and public betas. This leads users to believe that all(prenominal) soft ware is free. While many downloadable applications carry expiration dates, many companies deposit on nag messages rather then a disabling mechanism. These messages are easily ignored and allow the user to continue use of the harvest-home (Stevenson 18).Despite these factors global software piracy rates are on the decline. However, the number of illegal applications installed continues to grow, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). In 1998, 38 percent of applications in use globally were pirated, down from 49 percent in 1994. Yet, 231 trillion business software applications installed were pirated, 2.5 million more than in 1997. This led to an xi zillion dollar loss in revenue by software companies (Paquet). Jason Penchoff, a BSA spokesperson, states, Software piracy affects company productivity and jobs. For every free package or unlicensed package of software, companies are losing money. If an automaker illogical 38 percent of its revenue, there would be a huge call (qtd. in).So how are users obtaining all this illegal software? Consumers now have the ability to purchase goods from their computer. Generally when we hazard of electronic commerce, we mostly think of business to consumer transactions. But one of the most rapidly growing developments in electronic commerce is the consumer-to-consumer market. The rapid growth of earnings auction sites has created obtain opportunities for online consumers that were never before available. According to SIIAs Piracy on Internet Auction Sites, consumer-to-consumer online auction revenue will climb from $4 billion in 1999 to more than $15 billion in 2004 (3).