Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) loses backing of Business Software Alliance (BSA)

The SOPA, which is currently being debated in Congress, has lost the backing of the BSA, a group made up of tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Some may wonder why the BSA would not back the SOPA, which would seem a good thing for tech giants. BSA CEO Robert Holleyman wants to bill investigated first to see if its passing would cause unneeded consequences.

BSA members argue that if passed, the bill would give too much power to the Justice Department and violate US citizens' rights and privacy. The SOPA would allow the Justice Department to order Internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites that contain pirated material. The BSA says this violates piracy and free speech rights.

Citation:

http://www.techspot.com/news/46381-sopa-loses-backing-of-tech-giants-amid-policy-concerns.html

Where there’s a will there’s a way, is it all in vain?

So far in our blog we have covered what piracy is, who it impacts, how it impacts, and what is being done to counter act piracy.  We have talked about how it is bad to pirate, but I get the feeling this is all very redundant of what everyone has been hearing.  So let’s look at pirating from a different stand point.

It’s all in vain!  They can tell people it’s morally wrong, they can shut down sites, and they can try to make examples out of people that get caught pirating.  This doesn’t do anything there is always another person waiting to risk it , and willing to figure out how to get around the rules.  So why is the government and almost every media industry wasting their time trying to figure out how to stop it? It’s not going to happen.  Companies spend thousands of dollars holding conferences, and hiring teams that  are supposed to  come up with ways to stop pirating.  Yet as soon as the team comes up with a plan someone else finds a way to get around it.  If we used the money for these conferences to employ more artists and in teams that discover talent.  This isn't the first industry hit by stealing of product.

In the retail market almost all companies have a certain area in their budget that accounts for what they will lose in theft.  In this case they are trying to come up with other ways to make up for what they lose.  They attempt to have a better product that you want to pay for, and they also realize that there time can’t be wasted expecting society to be honest and trustworthy.  Of course normal stores have surveillance as well as laws against shoplifting.  Yet it still happens and this is what is happening in the online industries.  They need to realize they can only set up so many laws and regulations until they all just become repetitive and no one cares anymore.  So really all their anger and their attempts to stop what humans seem to do as second nature is in vain.  What do you all think should companies worry so much about pirating of their product?  At this point it seems pointless because as long as there is someone willing to find a way to get the product for free then the companies will continuously lose money. 

Edwards, Joe. "Online Music Piracy Topic of Nashville Meeting - BusinessWeek."Businessweek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OE6KOO0.htm>

Government Measures Being Taken

In a 2010 letter to the President and Congress, regarding the protection of intellectual property, lays out a six point strategic plan to attack the growing concern of piracy.

1)                      Leading by example

2)                      Increasing Transparency

3)                      Ensuring Efficiency and Coordination

4)                      Enforcing our Rights Internationally

5)                      Securing our Supply Chain

6)                      Building a Data-Driven Government

New laws this year are bringing about debate on how far the government can take this issue. Grant Gross reports about the law SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, introduced in late October allowing US law enforcement officials to shut down websites alleged to enable or facilitate copyright infringement, causing critics to say the government will gain censorship of the internet. The Consumer Electronics Association accuses the government of allowing the law enforcements to shut down legitimate e-commerce site. The other opposing issue is that we would see a private sector police power grow to a point smothering the fundamental openness of the internet.

This year we also saw the finalization of negotiations between top internet providers and Hollywood and music industry to systematically identify customers suspected of copyright infringement and alerting them through email or other communication. They broke it down to six levels of warnings before significant action be taken. Based on the three strike rule, simple email notifications, reduced connection speed or blocked browsing. These consumers will have a chance to contest the complaints brought about them. The process gets progressively more severe as the user doesn’t cooperate, ending in whatever the defendant’s wishes to sue on behalf.

The biggest question we have to ask ourselves, is it worth the money and efforts to attempt to stop illegal downloading? Is it interfering with our freedoms? Is the government gaining access to everyone’s privacy through illegal measures?  

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/isps-j13.shtml

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/Joint_Strategic_Plan_On_IP_Enforcement.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/technology/to-slow-piracy-internet-providers-ready-penalties.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/243200/debate_on_new_copyright_enforcement_bill_heats_up.html

Copyright Laws are Useless

Copyright laws prevent ideas from being stolen.  However, in this post, I argue that ideas cannot be taken away from anyone.  Therefore, it is unnecessary to have laws preventing ideas from being stolen because it is not possible to steal ideas.

In order for an idea to be stolen, it would be logically necessary that
(1) An idea can be owned by a person.
(2) Another person can take the idea from the person who owns it.

I first examine the assertion that an idea can be owned.
To address this point, the philosopher John Locke argues that a person owns his or her own body. In addition, "The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his." Expanding upon the ideas of Locke, the philosopher Georg Hegel proclaims that it is possible for a person to "set aside the mere thing and recreate it as his own". In other words, once a person's ideas are infused with the "mere" thing, the "mere thing" becomes an extension of the person.
Takeaway: Yes, an idea can be owned by a person.

Next, I investigate whether an idea can be stolen.
Evaluating the ownership and transference of ideas, Thomas Jefferson writes: "...an individual may exclusively possess [an idea] as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine"
Takeaway: No, ideas are not be taken from anyone in the process of sharing.

Why do copyright laws exist?
Copyright laws are said to "protect" the ideas of copy right holders. However they are not protecting the ideas from being taken away from their owner. So, my question is:

In what sense do copyright laws "protect" ideas?

John Locke - Second Treatsie of Government - CH 4 "Of Property

Richard T. De George, “14. Intellectual Property Rights,” in The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, by George G. Brenkert and Tom L. Beauchamp, vol. 1, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 417.

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson (August 13, 1813)

To What Extent?

So today is a little less about the facts of pirating; is it right or wrong, does it hurt the producer’s bottom line, or how it affects the economy. Today I want to look at a pirate. Someone I know who has agreed to let me look through their computer and talk about the pirated material they have. I just want to show a little insight into whom the pirate is and let the audience decide if the impact is significant knowing that this person is repeated possibly hundreds of thousands of times across the US. Below is a list of items currently being used (everything on their computer) by a single individual.

Windows 7 Ultimate $166
Adobe Acrobat Pro X $389
Adobe CS5 Extended $915
Alcohol 120 – Virtual drive software $55
Perrla – Formatting for Word $35
DVDFab – DVD/Blueray copying $124
Eset Smart Security A/V $40
Hallmark Card Studio (5 versions) $125
J. River Media Player $50
MS Office Pro $257
Norton Internet Security – Not installed $70
Quicktime Pro $30
Roxio Creator 2011 $63
System Mechanic Utilities $60
Winzip Pro $60
Several game titles (6 x $60) $360
55 Gb of music (approx. 15000 titles, most pirated)
2500+ ebooks

As can be seen from this one instance, there is approximately $2800 of pirated material on this one computer before figuring in the hundreds of dollars of music and possibly thousands of dollars of ebooks. Talking further to this individual, I was also made aware that many of these same software applications are present on multiple computers in their possession and they are in possession of approximately 250 copied movies.

My question to the readers is how much is ok if any, and how much are individuals such as
this impacting, good or bad, the particular industries?

Internet Piracy Bill

The Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced this past Wednesday into the House of Representatives by two Democrats and two Republicans. The Act would expand the power and scope of the FBI in cases involving piracy.


If passed, the FBI would be allowed to issue injunctions against foreign websites that host or allow the download of pirated material made by US companies. For example, if a Russian website is hosting a pirated version of a song created by an American musician, the FBI could issue an injunction against that Russian website. The FBI would also be allowed to go after payment processors, such as PayPal, that process payments to these websites.


Critics of the Act say that it gives the FBI too much power and would harm businesses. Some say that this would put a burden on the Internet and prevent it from working the way it is supposed to. "'There is no need for a bill this sweeping and this Draconian. There are simple, easily implemented solutions on which industry and others agree — such as cutting off the ability of credit-card companies to fulfill payments to sites that traffic in copyright infringement,' said Gigi Sohn, president of the public interest group Public Knowledge."

Variety and Quality are they important to you?

Do you like movies, music, or art?  Well if you do then pirating your materials probably is not the best idea you have ever had.  When you pirate media you not only get a free download but you also injure the industry itself.  Each day music, art, media, and software industries are losing money from pirating.  As they lose money they lose the ability to supply the quality material we are all so accustomed to. 

The screenwriters, song writers, and artists themselves don’t feel the need to work without pay.  And while it seems only fair that they should get a decent cut of the profits they are the last in line when it comes to released products.  Thus as we download more and more we make these artists want to find other jobs that can support them.  No one in today’s world is willing to work for free.  While we continually demand more variety the lack of funds is making it difficult for industries to offer high quality sounds, looks and software.  If you think what they are offering now is satisfactory then it might intrigue you that they are operating at only a fraction of their potential.

So the next time you download something thinking "this is really awesome"  enjoy it because the next items that come out probably won't be by the same artists and might not be nearly as good because most artists putting their work out there are brand new to the industry and haven't realized that there isn't much money to be made due to all of the pirating and their status on the food chain.

Sweney, Mark. "Global Recorded Music Sales Fall Almost $1.5bn amid Increased Piracy | Business | Guardian.co.uk." Latest News, Sport and Comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Web. 01 Nov. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/28/global-recorded-music-sales-fall>.

"Why Pirating Hurts Art." JM Frey —. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://jmfrey.net/2011/01/why-pirating-hurts-art/>. 

Piracy Lawsuits & Risks

In a report about University of Nevada at Reno, an increase of illegally downloaded files on the university system has been recognized. From 2009 they received roughly three or four reports a week. Compared to the 2010 statistic of three to four a day we can tell the piracy has increased with easier access to the internet. UNR didn’t spend the extra one hundred thousand dollars in order to know specifically which individual IP address the download was performed at. It seems that when Wi-Fi was installed in the residence hall, that’s where we saw the major increase in piracy on the internet. In this report by Ben Miller he compares UNR to Idaho University. Idaho had spent the extra money to be able to track individual users as well as making them sign anti-piracy act on campus. Violators are sent to the Dean of Students who then made community service and papers as a form of punishment.

While the US is trying to attack this serious issue of piracy, statistics show that the money being spent in order to track and attempt to collect money from pirates has not paid off. During 2006-2008 there was an estimated $64 million spent tracking these customers. While only seeing $1.36 million in successful lawsuits and settlements. This is not even two and a half percent rate of return. To these companies it is not about the money, it’s about the mission to dissuade users from pirating files. Companies have since backed away from legal actions, trying a different route of Internet Service Providers to have more warnings and try a scare tactic into customers.

I understand where everyone is coming from with the piracy issue. There has to be a better way to attack this issue besides suing and trying to track people down through the internet. There should be a way to encrypt any new files that are being made so that they cannot be copied or distributed more than once.

What do you think should be done about piracy in today’s society? Is it right? Is it just accepted by today’s standards? Should students be able to download illegally whenever they want? 

Are schools invading our privacy by monitoring illegal actions like pirating? No because they are illegal, and they are looking out for their backs. 

           

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/14/riaa.paid.64m.over.three.years.to.get.14m/

http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2010/09/27/students-at-risk-for-piracy-lawsuits/

Fair Use Doctrine

The fair use doctrine protects the right to create derivative works from original copyrighted works.

In deciding whether a derivative work is protected by the fair use doctrine, judges consider four factors.

    1 -  the purpose and character of your use
    2 -  the nature of the copyrighted work
    3 -  the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
    4 -  the effect of the use upon the potential market.

In other words, a work is protected by the fair use doctrine if:

The original work is presented in a new context, which differs significantly from the original context.
The original work can be characterized as a non-fiction or factual work.
Only a small portion of the original work is copied.
The potential market for the original work is preserved.

Example:  John Doe wrote an article called "The Formation of the Sun".  Subsequently, Jane Doe writes an article called "The Formation of the Solar System".   Jane uses Excerpts from John's work in order to characterize the impact of the Sun's formation on the formation of the solar system as a whole.

Jane's article is protected by the doctrine of fair use.

Jane presented the factual material in a larger context.  Jane only copied the small portion of John's work which involved the Sun's impact on the rest of the planets.  Jane's article does not negatively impact the potential market for John's article.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html
http://www.copyright.com/viewPage.do?pageCode=cr10-n

Can we stop piracy?

Software piracy is a big problem in the digital age. Companies from software giant Microsoft to small upstarts selling simple PC utilities are victims of having their products pirated, sometimes without the users even being aware that they are using the software in a manner that is
illegal and punishable under law.

To combat piracy, manufacturers have spent billions trying to improve their DRM in an attempt to prevent hackers and crackers from making their products available to would be pirates. Microsoft has engineered their operating system and Office suite with Microsoft Product Activation (MPA, WPA, WGA, and OGA), gaming companies use various methods including obfuscation, encryption (initial release and updates), simple checks (dongles and registration),
guards, and tethering. As the battle continues to rage between software companies and pirates the methods become ever more complex but many believe that this is not the answer and ultimately ends up impacting the legitimate users negatively. Fully functional, pirated copies of MS Windows as well as MS Office suite are readily available for download and installation; if Microsoft and their phenomenal technological and financial resources are unable to stop piracy of their software, then what chance do other companies.

There is another thought though, and that is to accept that it is going to happen and construct your business plan accordingly. Shamus Young is a 39 year old software engineer and offers these five ideas (Young, 2008) on how to get people to buy software instead of pirating it:

1. Make sure the pirates can’t offer a superior product
2. Get closer to the community
3. Offer a demo
4. Entice them with valuable updates
5. Clean house (who is leaking the pre-release copies of your product?)

For more detailed explanations of these points, visit http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1558

So in the end, the general consensus is that piracy is going
to happen, and no amount of money or technological know-how will stop it so
what should the producers do about it? As far as software producers are
concerned, many have taken the path that Victor DeMarines speaks about on his
page and that is “the game industry recognized that piracy was a part of business and optimized its launch plans to maximize revenue within four weeks—the time it takes crackers to break their
copy protection approach.” (DeMarines, 2010)

Works Cited
DeMarines, V. (2010, June 6). How to Combat Software Piracy: From Reaction to Revenue Recovery. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.eweek.com/:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/How-to-Combat-Software-Piracy-From-Reaction-to-Revenue-Recovery/

Young, S. (2008, March 6). Twenty sided. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.shamusyoung.com/: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1558

Attempting to legalize piracy

While governments and countless organizations try to stamp-out piracy, there are countless people and organizations trying to legalize it. One in particular sn the Piratenpartei Deutschland, or in English, "The Pirate Party of Germany".

The Pirate Party of Germany, which was founded in 2006, is based off of the Swedish Pirate Party. Their central platform is based on libertarianism. That is, they believe the government should be as small as possible, staying out of people's personal lives and economic matters. The Pirate Party of Germany opposes Internet censorship, copyrights, and patents. The Party supports a transparents government, one that would allow its citizens to monitor its activities.

Unlike in the US, where a political party needs a majority to win seats in a state or federal congress, in Germany, a party only needs 5% of the total vote to win seats in a state or federal congress. Because of this, it is possible for small parties like The Pirate Party of Germany to exist. For the first time in history, The Pirate Party of Germany won seats in the 2011 Berlin election. They hold 15 seats in the Berlin Landtag, the state parliament. The Pirate Party of Germany holds no seats in the Bundestag, the federal parliament.

The Pirate Party of Germany is criticized for their socially-liberal platform, but also for the lack of women in their party.




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The following webpages were used to gather information for this post:

http://www.piratenpartei.de/

http://www.fr-online.de/spezials/wahlleiter-laesst-kleine-parteien-zu-freie-fahrt-fuer-die-piraten,1472874,2828142,item,0.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/world/europe/in-berlin-pirates-win-8-9-percent-of-vote-in-regional-races.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2

When Pirates get Caught

How You Can Get Caught

It is easy to think you will get away with pirating because when you are actually doing it no one is physically around to watch you.  There are many different ways today that you can get caught.  The MPAA, the RIAA, and other copyright and government authorities employs multiple monitoring services to "watchdog" millions of users on the Internet.  They do this in hopes to cut down on their profit losses from illegal downloading.  Another way you can get caught is your ISP(Internet Service Provider) will notice your large bandwidth use and report it to the appropriate companies.  

How You Know When You Get Caught

If you do get caught there are a couple different ways that you can find out.  It is considered "lucky" to get a warning email.  This will generally let you know that you are on the verge of being taken to court over your pirating.  Normally you will receive a threatening legal letter.  Telling you that you are going to be taken to court over the pirated items.

What Happens Once You Are Caught

Once caught there many different things that could happen.  From a slap on the wrist, to a large fine, and then more critical actual imprisonment.  Pirating is considered an offense of the Copyright Act.  This act protects copyrighted material and those caught distributing and downloading face civil actions.  These acts can be punished with up to 3 years imprisonment and £150,000 in fines.  The verdict depends greatly based on the extent of the online infringement.  For example often one will have to pay for what they were caught downloading.  If you are unlucky and dumb enough to get caught a second time the consequences are much bigger.  A Double offense can be up to 6 years in jail. So, next time your about to download something because it's free think twice.

"How Do Music Pirates Get Caught?" About Internet for Beginners: Your Guide to Participating in Online Culture and Navigating the Web and Internet. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. <http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/p2plegalitiesandethics/f/bustingpirates.htm>.

"Illegal Downloading: What Happens If You're Caught? - Features, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent." The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/illegal-downloading-what-happens-if-youre-caught-1736013.html>.

"Online Piracy: What Happens When You Get Caught « Internet « MyBroadband Tech and IT News." MyBroadband. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. <http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/14000-online-piracy-what-happens-when-you-get-caught.html>. 

    

  

  

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Introduction

The copyrights interests of many software and entertainment companies are now threatened by peer-to-peer networks, web streaming programs, and other file sharing and copying technologies.  These technologies have inherent advantages with respect to distribution costs, and making files accessible to a large number of people.  They have inherent disadvantages, mainly concerning the ease of unauthorized copying and sharing.  In order to both capitalize on the advantages of file sharing and copying technologies and circumvent the disadvantages, many content producers have turned to DRM technologies.

Fundamentally, DRM deals with the relationship between three distinct entities.

User – Who is using the content?

Content – What is it?

Usage Rights – In what ways is the user allowed to utilize the content?

Examples

RealNetworks and Rhapsody are both streaming music services.  The user is the subscriber and the content is the song.  The usage rights are defined so that the user may stream the songs, but may not save the files permanently.  The DRM software utilized by the streaming services ensures that the usage rights are enforced, by making it difficult for the user to recover the streamed file in its entirety.

MovieLink and CinemaNow are streaming video services (similar to Netflix).  They use DRM to allow subscribers to make one DVD copy of some of the older films in their collections.  They also use DRM to enable “time-loaded downloads”.  To view a time-loaded download, the subscriber must open the file within a specified time period after downloading it.  The usage rights, therefore, are time bound.

Conclusion

As we can see from the above examples, DRM focuses on limiting the usage rights of content users.  This approach can be contrasted with traditional copyright measures, which attempt to completely block any attempts to copy or share content.  Looking toward the future, we will see if DRM can meet the challenge of protecting the right of consumers to fair use, while simultaneously protecting the copy rights of content producers.

References

Layton, Julia. "How Digital Rights Management Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct 2011. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/drm.htm.

Ginsburg, Jane. "The Pros and Cons of Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection: Technological Protection Measures and Section 1201 of the US Copyright Act." Columbia Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers. (2007): n. page. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://lsr.nellco.org/columbia_pllt/07137>.

Koyle, Karen. "The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management." 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. http://www.kcoyle.net/drm_basics1.html.

A case made it to Congress a few years ago in 2006, University initiatives had come to a decision that they were going to stop illegal downloading of music amongst college campuses. As we see on our campus here, the internet use through campus is all monitored for illegal action. Karine Abalyan reports that 50% of college students frequently download music or movies illegally. This statistic was very understandable with the easy access to free downloading in today’s society. The individuals at universities and the entertainment business have joined in a partner ship creating, Joint Committee of Higher Education and Entertainment Communities Technology Task Force, creating a long-lasting attack on the piracy.

The main sources of copyright infringement are: code key, open source, hardware key, and anti-piracy software. Code key has been in effect for the last five to seven years, it is the physical code on the purchased software that locks out once it has been used once. The next is the open source software which is simply license free software that can be legally downloaded yet people still insist on getting them illegally. Our next option at attacking piracy is the hardware key which is attached to the computer, monitors all the programs, detecting programs that are attempting to run without proper licensing and shutting them down. Lastly the anti-piracy software preventing the illegal duplication or use of copyrighted material. There is also some software’s that will prevent hackers from copying software without the consent of the copyright owner.

A report found the profit margin on movie piracy was more lucrative than the drug trafficking. It is also said that seventy-five percent of movies profit's come from rentals and syndication after box office release. With that said you can imagine how hard this is hurting the movie industry, by partnering with universities on this attack we can hope to start to eliminate some forms of the illegal downloads. 

The following were used in preparation of this blog:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215923,00.html

http://www.howtodothings.com/business/how-to-prevent-software-piracy

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15414327?source=rss

Piracy - An Introduction

The US Patent and Trademark Office defines piracy as "a theft of intellectual property". One could say that piracy is the stealing anything that is illegally copied, such as books, music, and movies. For example, if a song is copyrighted, downloading it from anywhere that does not have the artist's permission is piracy.

It is also important to read the licensing and terms and agreements on products because sharing software, music, or movies with others may be piracy, even if you purchased it. For example, many software programs state in their licensing agreements that you may only install the software onto one computer.

The Institute for Policy Innovation estimates that the piracy of music alone costs the US $12.5 billion, while having cost Americans over 70,000 lost jobs and $2 billion in lost wages.

As we move into a day and age of advanced technology, piracy is becoming more and more widespread. Modern pirates do not sail around in ships and do not have chests full of treasures, but rather surf the web and have hard drives full of illegally-downloaded digital content.



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The following webpages were used to gather information for this post:

http://www.ipi.org/ipi/IPIPublications.nsf/f726f4998ba46f86862567d80074727a/d95dcb90f513f7d78625733e005246fa?OpenDocument

http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=What-is-Online-Piracy

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/kidantipiracy04.htm

The Cost of Intellectual Property Piracy

We have already seen that piracy is defined as the “theft of intellectual property”, but who does this theft affect and how much does it really cost?

It has been stated that in the music industry alone, costs exceed $12.5billion and thousands of jobs, but many other industries experience losses as well. It is estimated that the intellectual property industry in the US is worth $5 trillion annually and employs 18 million people. The motion picture industry in the US loses $20 billion per year (Nagesh, 2010). Within the European Union things are no better, costing as much as 1.2 million jobs and costing £215bn in lost revenue (The Sun UK, 2010). Software piracy has also increased dramatically in recent years, fueled primarily by the lower cost and in turn higher numbers of computers worldwide. The estimated cost of software piracy stands at $51 billion in commercial value. In countries such as Brazil, China, and India, that account for 86% of increased computer sales, large numbers of new criminal counterfeiters are springing up causing many problems for software manufacturers. Beyond the loss to corporate entities, the local economies also suffer in loss of jobs supporting the legitimate industry. It is estimated that a 10% drop in the piracy rate could create 500,000 new jobs and pump $140 billion dollars into a variety of economies. And this is only accounting for the sale of pirated software, not what is downloaded freely from a host of websites and torrents easily available (Barrett, 2010).

Finally, the cost is also to the users of this software, music, or video entertainment. Many are unaware of the consequences that they could face if they are caught and prosecuted, in facing prison time and/or steep monetary fines and penalties. Also at issue is the risk of dangerous viruses and lack of support through purchasing, downloading, or using pirated software.


The Sun UK. (2010, March 17). Retrieved October 2, 2011, from The Sun UK: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2896317/Online-piracy-cost-39k-jobs.html

Barrett, L. (2010, May 13). eSecurity Planet - Security Trends. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from eSecurity Planet: http://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/article.php/3881951/Software-Piracy-Cost-Companies-51B-BSA-Report.htm

Nagesh, G. (2010, June 23). The Hill's Technology Blog. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from The Hill: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/105081-lawmakers-industry-lament-costs-of-online-piracy-at-hearing