The Computer Age has redefined society in many ways: computers -- and the Internet -- have brought along new ways to communicate, new forms of entertainment, new professions -- and new crimes. .
Software piracy is the unlawful copying and distribution of software products. The Business Software Association estimates a worldwide revenue loss of $12.2 billion worldwide (for business applications only) during the year 1999. .
The figures for the games industry are just as high. Up to 109,000 jobs, $4.5 billon in wages and $1 billion in tax revenues were also lost. .
Software piracy is a unique form of counterfeiting. Since all copies of a software product (legitimate or not), are perfectly identical to its original, the value of each and every copy is not diminished by the copying process. There is no or very little loss of quality from one generation to the other (unlike videotapes, for instance), and the only real difference between an original and a pirate copy is the media and the packaging. .
91% of pirated software is being sold in internet auction sites like EBay. Many of these illegal copies are made at home by people who have CD copiers- many of which were supplied with the computer. .
Occasional copying is more often than not discounted as "harmless" and justified with the assumption that it is common practice. But there is more to piracy than just occasional disk-swapping.
Piracy has become an illegitimate business on its own. Sometimes, piracy is actually carried on at a corporate level (enterprises which use multiple copies of a software suite to cut down on costs) or in ways unknown to the end user (dealers who install pirate copies on new machines to further entice buyers). .
Software piracy funds organised crime and so affects more than the people involved in the production and use of counterfeited software.
Worldwide Piracy.
In 2003, the Business Software Alliance commissioned a study on worldwide business software piracy.
