Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the software program be deposited with the National Copyright Office for the program to be protected as copyrighted. With that in mind, a copyright is a property right only. In order to prevent anyone from selling your software programs, you must ask a federal court to stop that person by an injunction and to give you damages for the injury they have done to you by selling the program.
The Software Rental Amendments Act was approved in 1990. This Act prohibits the commercial rental, leasing, or lending of software without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Another amendment to the Copyright Act was passed in 1992. This amendment made software piracy a federal offense, and instituted criminal penalties for copyright infringement of software. The penalties can include imprisonment of up to five years, fines up to $250,000, or both for unauthorized reproduction or distribution of ten or more copies of software with a total retail value exceeding $2,500 or more.
According to federal law, duplicating software for profit, making multiple copies for use by different users within an organization, and giving an unauthorized copy to someone else is prohibited. Under this law, if anyone is caught with the pirated software, an individual or the individual's company can be tried under both civil and criminal law. A civil action may be established for injunction, actual damages (which includes the criminal's profits), or statutory damages up to $100,000 per infringement. The criminal penalties for copyright infringement can result in fines up to $250,000 and a jail term up to five years for the first offense and ten years for a second offense. When software is counterfeit or copied, the software developer loses their revenue and the whole software industry feels the effect of piracy. .
