Software Copyright And Software Piracy

Nowadays almost everything has become dependent on Computer and Internet, as the combination of these two, or solely both of them make our lives easy! People do most of the practical stuff including emails, chatting, working and so forth. As more and more advances are made in the world of computer, one knows for sure that its the software which allows all these deep things to happen. Computer hardware is nothing without a computer software and vice versa! As many excellent software are being introduced day by day, people are getting inclined towards buying them, whether legally or illegally! Thats when things get easier for us, and less helpful for those who work day and night on them. Though its cheap in cost to buy copied and pirated software, but this deed is illegal and unlawful. This topic can be taken as a debate that whether we should use pirated software or not, since some people can afford the original software, while others cannot. In this article, I am just going to provide an overview about software copyright and software piracy, without jumping into any debate or so.

SOFTWARE COPYRIGHT:

Starting off with the definition, software copyright means the lawful protection given to authors and publishers with respect to the usage of the software made by them. Many people do not pay attention to the fact that a computer software consists of copyright laws just like books or other kinds of publications. The rights of any author are created by the protection of "intellectual property" under the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

When we go to a shop and buy a software, we can see that it consists of a software license that sets conditions on the usage of that particular software. These conditions, which are set by software license, are different for different products, depending on certain terms. If the software is not used according to the terms set by its license, then any other way of usage is illegal. This derives to a fact that copying software from some other person is counted as illegal.There are cases when special license is required, such as multiple use on a network.

There are different kinds of license available, and the terms of each license should be followed properly. Some of the kinds of license are as follows:

1) SINGLE-USER LICENSE: In this kind of license, the software can only be used on one computer! This type of license is the common type.

2) MULTI-USER LICENSE: In this type of license, one company can buy a software and install that software on an agreed number of computers with the reduction of fee per computer.

3) SITE LICENSE: This is the type where any number of computers are permitted to use the software at a specified location. There is just one payment made to get permitted for multiple installations.

4) PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE: This license does not consist of any rights and permits to freely use the software.

5) FREEWARE: This kind permits free use of the software but most of the times, it does not allow alteration or sale of the software.

6) SHAREWARE: This license allows free use of the software for a specific period, meaning on trail basis.

SOFTWARE PIRACY:As the term points out itself, software piracy is the unlawful copying of a software for either personal use or for the means of re-sale. Due to this illegal copying, the publishers of the software lose a good amount of income on their products and try to take steps in order to prevent the copying. One good approach of avoiding piracy is to protect it, as a protected software is designed in such a way that it is hard to copy it. A software can be protected by having copy protection or using a key disk. On the other hand, an unprotected software does not consist of any steps which can avoid copying and instead is dependent on the legal authority of the software license. Following three approaches are helpful in avoiding the piracy of a software:

1) COPY PROTECTION: It utilizes some physical change to the data on the disk to avoid copies of the disk being made.

2) INSTALLATION DISKS: These disks have the software in encrypted form. The software is copied onto the computer's hard disk first and then can be used.

3) KEY DISK: Key disk means a floppy disc or a CD which is required to install a software which comprises of credits that are decreased by one on every installation.