Advantages and disadvantages of using pirated software: Part 2

As mentioned in the recent post, there are advantages and disadvantages of using pirated softwares. More disadvantages are found than advantages. In this post, we will discuss about this thing which we have already get through by reading other articles and facts.[Photo]When we talk about software piracy, the consumer will never think that the impacts can be experienced by them. However, the party that feel the pain the most must be the software developers themselves, as we are mostly noticed. This fact can be easily predicted. Of course when the software is being distributed without the permission from the developers, of course the profits will never go to the developers and completely go to the dealers. As a result of this situation, they can not or maybe face difficulties in performing researches for their next products. -Source:http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_disadvantages_of_software_piracy
From the consumers’ standpoint, they also have some difficulties while using pirated softwares. For an example, using the operating system, user can not update through the internet or the software can be detected as pirated version by the developer and possibly the software can not be used again unless the consumer reinstall the software. In another case, sometimes, when the software is being used for a certain period, the software will need to be cracked again or it will go wrong as the result of corruption. The software will ask the user to enter the validation code all over again.
Using the pirated softwares also come along with risk of getting into viruses infection on your computer. The pirated software also may contain some various types of trojans and worms especially the software that you download from the internet or peer-to-peer sharing. That is why the cracking programs is being detected by the antivirus as viruses. Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-Pirated-Software-Really-Worth-It?&id=1478057
[Photo]Software piracy actually gives the bad impacts on the economy of a country. A research has been that software piracy activities has put the economic growth into reduction. “According to a recent study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and International Data Corporation (IDC), cutting the current global software piracy rate of 35% by ten percentage points over the course of four years could yield 2.4 million new jobs, $400 billion in economic growth and an additional $67 billion in tax revenues” –Source: http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/01033/009937.html
Last but not least, the impact of software piracy is to the price of the original copy of software itself. That is why we cannot accept the argument that says “it is excusable to buy pirated softwares because the original softwares are quiet expensive”. This is because the developer need to increase the price in order to back up the losses they are facing each year. This is based on the research conducted by the International Planning and Research Corporation. Source: http://www.realvalue.net/brian/piracy/warez.html
So, students. Which one do you prefer the most? A little more expensive software with satisfaction of usage and freedom of worries or the pirated version of software that can give you frustration and probably get you penalized? Your choice.

Advantages and disadvantages of using pirated software: Part 1

Is buying and using pirated software worth it? Well there are some good things when buying illegal software in terms of economical; cheaper software – a lot cheaper and also getting illegal software is not hard and you don’t have to sometimes special order for some software that doesn’t sell in your country. Software shops also can gain some of it’s advantages; since people will buy cheaper ones and the software shops can only throw out small amount of modals. Other than economical advantages using pirated software can be the way for someone to masterly using specific applications. For example Adobe software. Since Adobe products are extremely expensive most people couldn’t afford to buy it, but again Adobe products are considered as a mainstream applications for industries. So most of the user will buy pirated Adobe software since it’s much more cheaper and users can masterly learn the software functions through tutorials. However there are more disadvantages in using pirated software than advantages. We’ll discuss this matter more in the second part of this entry.

Students and Software Piracy

Computers and Internet have become an important part of our society. There is no doubt that these technologies have had an impact on our daily lives. Computers and Internet have enlightened many group of people but these technologies have also raised some ethical issues such as piracy. Student’s more in common were one of the largest group that has been related to Software Piracy. The relationship Between student and software piracy will always been a never ending story. Ever since the rise of a pirated software in a form of CD to Illegal software downloads, These are the diversify transformation act of pirated software from time to time which makes these are the advantages that student have .This also include student usage because the rise of computer hardware and modern internet application, student getting more easier to excess to software piracy from time to time. There is a lots of reason been made by student because of their used of pirated software:

•It’s far more cheaper than the original product
•Reliable source
•Easy access to download the software
•Can Get it anywhere around computer stores
•Portable file sharing that make them easier to share any pirated software with friends.

But whatever reason they stated regarding their usage of pirated software’s , they actually didn’t realize that they have committed one of the major ethical issues that have arisen in the context of information technology usage. It is a globally widespread phenomena and one of the main contributors for software manufacturers lost billions of dollars annually. The culture of copying/downloading software has made the issue of piracy very well-known and it’s like a virus that simply spread and travel around the world.

Type of Pirated Softwares

Pirated softwares can be found almost everywhere, and in various types. But what are the type of pirated softwares that people use? It all depends on their function and other factors.

Each software have their specific functionality and capabilities, as well as different appearances.

So far the type of pirated softwares that I know of are the games and graphical softwares.

Defining Software Piracy

Dear students, what kinds of software are you using? Be it either system software (operating system – or more popular terms Microsoft Windows or Mac OS or Linux) or application software (word processing and spreadsheets – Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, graphics – Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, games – you know what it is). Are you sure you’re acquiring the software from a ‘legal’ distributor and sure that the software that you’re using is ‘original’? If you aren’t sure, please make a re-check. Maybe you’re a victim of a software piracy. Before we go in-depth on what is a software piracy, and their impacts on MMU students, first we need to understand the term.

Software piracy

The unauthorized copying of software.

[Webopedia]

…illegal duplication and distribution of software…

[Microsoft]

…illegal distribution and/or reproduction…

[Adobe]

Here we could see the glimpse of an idea what pirate software is. Pirated software is a software that is copied and distributed illegally. In the internet language it’s also know as the word ‘Warez’, which means pirated commercial software. It doesn’t matter whether the medium of copying is in optical disc, or in hard drive or even floppy or tape drive; as long it’s from a commercial software and being modified to let it run on your computer without proper activation (the usage of crack files or keygen). Copy for backup purpose (such as copying an original Windows CD for backup purpose) is totally different since it doesn’t involves distribution. According to Geek News, below is the top 10 most pirated software in the world in 2007:

1. McAfee VirusScan
2. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
3. McAfee Internet Security Suite
4. Intuit TurboTax
5. Adobe Photoshop
6. Adobe Acrobat
7. Intuit Quicken Home and Business
8. Symantec Norton pcAnywhere
9. Symantec Norton Ghost
10. Adobe Creative Suite

Surprisingly Microsoft Windows is not in the top of the list. Well, it’s WORLD after all. As you can see all the software mentioned above is more into graphic and security software and I wonder how would our ‘league’ (students) results turn to, I assume Microsoft Windows will be in the top of the list – just as assumptions – since most of our friends here get their hand on the MSDNAA account.

“Wait, I pay for the software, how can this be a pirated one?”

Now this is a good question, yes it’s true you bought the software but it doesn’t mean paying equals to getting legally. A original software usually costs more (about MYR 100 and above) and it comes with a box package and a license sticker and an instruction book (not to mention – thick instruction book). There’s also a counter-measure that certain companies made such as Microsoft where their software needs to be validated and if the software failed during the validation process, it shows a warning about the software is not genuine or in some software cases their serial key is being blacklisted.

Overall, this is a glimpse what a pirated software is. Next we’ll discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of having a pirated software and discussing and explains on why students tends to use pirated software, even though there’s another legal and cheap (or even free) alternatives.