Transcript Software Piracy - UCLA Department of Information Studies

Alexander Marlantes
December 3rd 2008
[email protected]
What is Piracy?
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Creating a copy and/or selling it. This is the act that some people refer to as "software piracy". This is
copyright infringement in most countries and is unlikely to be fair use or fair dealing if the work remains
commercially available. In some countries the laws may allow the selling of a version modified for use by
blind people, students (for educational product) or similar. Differences in legislation may also make the
copyright void in some jurisdictions, but not the others.
Creating a copy and giving it to someone else. This constitutes copyright infringement in most
jurisdictions. It is not infringing under specific circumstances such as fair use and fair dealing.
Creating a copy to serve as a backup. This is seen as a fundamental right of the software-buyer in some
countries, e.g., Germany, Spain, Brazil and Philippines. It can be infringement, depending on the laws
and the case law interpretations of those laws, currently undergoing changes in many countries. In the
US, legal action was taken against companies which made backup copies while repairing computers (see
MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc. (1993)) and as a result, US law was changed so that making
temporary backup copies of software while repairing computers is not copyright infringement.
Renting the original software. Software licenses often restrict the usual right of a purchaser of a
copyrighted work to let others borrow the work. In some jurisdictions the validity of such restrictions are
disputed, but some require permission from the copyright holder to allow renting the software.
Buying the original software. Licenses say that the buyer does not buy the software but instead pays for
the right to use the software. In the US, the first-sale doctrine, Softman v. Adobe [3] and Novell, Inc. v.
CPU Distrib., Inc. ruled that software sales are purchases, not licenses, and resale, including unbundling,
is lawful regardless of a contractual prohibition. The reasoning in Softman v. Adobe suggests that resale of
student licensed versions, provided they are accurately described as such, is also not infringing.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirated_software
Types of Piracy
 Industrial piracy:
 An individual or group attempts duplication and distribution
on a large scale for profit.
 Corporate piracy:
 Unprotected contents are shared through networks such as
peer-to-peer, LAN and Internet.
 Reseller piracy:
 Involves computer hardware companies selling machines with
illegal copies of software preloaded on their hard drive.
 Home piracy:
 Ranges from trading disks with friends to running a not-forprofit bulletin board for the purpose of illegal software
distribution.
The Birth of Software Piracy
 Commodore 64
 Physical copies of floppies mailed using postal system
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Facilitated software transmission from the West to the East
 Rise of internet assisted Bulletin Board Systems
 Limited by data transmission speeds (<<56k)
 First attempt to combat software piracy in 1992 by the
Software Publisher’s Association
 “Don’t Copy that Floppy”
 Introduction of Windows 95 and the personal PC
boom.
 Modem speeds typically between 28.8 and 33.6 kbits /
second.
 “Warez”
 Possibly derived from the Middle English term “wares”
 First “Underground” FTP websites and BBS
 High virus and malware content
 Eventually morphed into Morpheus / Azerous / Kazaa
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Main software copied included pornography, video games,
and expensive media software (Photoshop etc.)
As internet speeds increase…
 Peer to Peer networks become increasingly popular as
compared to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites due to
bandwidth concerns
 Bittorent and Rapidshare are now the dominant memes
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Decentralized model helps reduce “blame” and makes it
difficult for central authorities to shut down websites
All files are now fair game. With a fast enough connection
even the latest and greatest high definition movie can be
downloaded and ready to run in less than an hour.
Software
 Often distributed via “cracked” packages or as CD ISO
images meant to be read by virtual CD drives as
opposed to pirated movies which are often large AVI or
DIVX files
 Video Game industry has much more control on
games that require online access
 Often times games and are software are unable to be
updated via the intended means
Very difficult to control content
 Even fixed media:
taken
from:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/200703/07/content_848238.htm
Economic Impact
Source: Business Software Alliance and IDC 2004,
First annual BSA and IDC global software piracy
study.
Piracy Rates
Thank You
 Questions?