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The Ethics of Software Sharing

For software, it is estimated that one illegal copy is made for every software program sold" (Bailey, 1984). " .
             The previous paragraph explains why pirating is illegal but then what makes it unethical? There are also moral theories that back up my position as well. The theory of cultural relativism is a moral theory that holds no valid rational criterion for determining the right thing to do exists. An action is only good or bad depending on the standards that have been placed in the society in which you live. I have only claimed that software pirating is unethical in the United States that does not mean however that it is unethical in the countries mentioned earlier such as Italy or Spain maybe just illegal there. If you look at the theory of Act Utilitarianism where the ethical decision is the one that utilizes the most happiness, the happiness of one person (the software pirate) is overruled by the unhappiness of everyone at the software company losing money because of it. If we take a look at the theory of Rule Utilitarianism then software sharing is breaking the rules "do not cheat " and "Obey the Law"." This is because you are cheating by getting around paying for the program by stealing it and not obeying the law because piracy is illegal. In Deontological Ethics the theory of the Universal Law of Nature would say "If it is okay to steal, then we should not expect to have any personal property. If there is no such thing as personal property, then there is no such thing as "stealing."" Hence, the maxim is logically invalid; either there is no such thing as stealing, so the maxim is invalid, or stealing is wrong." "(Ethics in Computing Culture pg. 21) The final theory that backs up my claim is Contractarianism. This theory says that people are out to promote their self-interest and the best way of doing that is to promote the common interest in society. In our society we do not steal for any reason.


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