Software Piracy, and current issues realting to the topic.

Software pirates are cheating the United States and the world of jobs, and retail sales in our society. The current law agrees with this statement. The United States government has made computer software able to be protected by United States Copyright Law. With this law, corporations intend to reduce the software piracy business. However, the software pirates are not helpless in this battle, because new technology makes it easier to become a software pirate. Even though the government's approach to this piracy issue is strong by passing all the laws, with new technology the pirates have an easier chance.

Who is a software pirate? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a software pirate is someone who commits the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright. For example, a software pirate can range from someone illegally copying Microsoft Windows and distributing to others, to a college student using his CD burner to copy a song from a CD and give it to a friend.

English: Rally in Stockholm, Sweden, in support of...

Microsoft Building

Microsoft and Flickr

According to the Microsoft homepage there are four common types of software piracy. The first is called "End User Copying", this is unlicensed copying by a business or a person (Microsoft, "The Four Common Piracies"). This is the type of software piracy that is directly related to CD-Recordables, also known as CD "Burners". An example of this type of piracy would be purchasing a copy of Windows 98 and then "Burning" copies of this software and giving it to your friends. The second type of piracy is "Hard disk loading"; this is done by computer manufactures, which install a legally acquired copy of a software application onto many computers (Microsoft, "The Four Common Piracies"). The third type of Piracy is "counterfeiting"; this is software piracy at its largest scale. It is...