The Computer Age has redefined our society in many different ways. In the recent years, especially, the growth of the Internet, has created new ways to communicate, exchange information, new forms of entertainment, new professions, new fields of study, and new crimes.
Software piracy has long been the major illegal activity behind the scenes in the computer industry, and nevertheless is an issue that affects us very much in the personal and social levels. At the same time, it is an issue that is difficult to grasp and rectify, and it isn't difficult to see why. The "conservative" estimates by the Business software Association and Software Industry Information Association, has established a figure of $12.2 billion as the revenue loss amongst the software companies world-wide. Clearly, this is an issue to be seriously considered and remedied.
Criterion B: IT Background on the Issue.
Software piracy is tentatively defined as "the unlawful copying and distribution of software products). Software piracy is a unique form of counterfeiting. As opposed to the counterfeiting books or records in the "old days", counterfeited software do not degrade in quality from one generation to another. Since there is no real difference between the original and the pirated product, people are often enticed by the idea of pirated software.
Software piracy takes place in different forms. It may involve users "casually" copying software onto a storage medium to lend to a friend, or it might involve a highly-skilled crackers, mass production and distribution of pirated software across international borders. Software piracy is an issue that has a wide range of implications, and undoubtedly it can't be taken for granted.
Piracy in an industrial level contains programming experts who devote their time to a specific function of the piracy ring. A "cracker", is "a person who removes or bypasses the copy-right protection on the software packages", usually in a form of a small VB (Visual Basic) coded software.