It is estimated that $11 billion in software revenues have been lost due to piracy according to . Thanks to file-sharing programs such as Kazaa, Gnutella, Morpheus, BareShare, iMesh, Audio Galaxy Satellite, Direct Connect, Kazaa lite, Grokster, LimeWire, and others it is made possible and easy to pirate software. There's something very wrong with this. Not only is it computer fraud but, the amounts of file-sharing software available leads you to the fact that it is incredibly way too common. In an annual study by it is believed that more than one-third of applications are pirated copies. Maybe because it is sometimes quicker to download software on a file-sharing program than it is if you were to drive to an electronics store and physically buy it. Although file-sharing programs have allowed users to freely distribute illegal copies of software it is not entirely their fault. Then who's to blame? If software companies were more serious about piracy, then shouldn't there be higher tactical measures to prevent piracy from occurring? It isn't a common everyday thing that someone would steal software from Fry's Electronics. Yet it is 3 clicks away via internet. If software companies would spend more time on their security features there would be less pirated software. .
In an article published today by Lisa M. Bowman of CNET News.com, it is said that, "The U.S. Naval Academy Has Seized about 100 student computers that are suspected of containing unauthorized copies of copyrighted works." It is good that they are doing something about piracy on college campuses, but that's 100 out of several thousands of college users pirating software. That also does not mean those 100 students will stop from pirating once more. In the article it explains how universities restrict ways in dealing with file-sharing programs such as using bandwidth management tools to block or restrict file swapping. This is a bad way to prevent users from file-sharing because bandwidth management programs can only do so much.