Internet Piracy has become a hot topic as of late with all the recent cyber security bills being purposed in congress. Many companies that own intellectual property want these bills to pass, this will allow them to better defend their intellectual property against would be pirates. The three benefits to software piracy are the removal or price conscious consumers from the market, showing interest in the product, and give the owner company’s word of mouth advertising. Software piracy is a complicated issue, although the person pirating the piece of software is technically stealing, they are only stealing time and ideas. There is no physical item missing from the creator of the software.
Software piracy is the unauthorized copying of computer software. Many countries around the world have copyright laws which apply to software piracy but the extent of enforcement differs. These copyrights usually surpass the practical life of the product (US Government). Today the oldest programs for computers have copyrights will not expire till the year 2030. These programs are forty years old, that’s a sixty year old copyright for a program that is about as useful as an ejector seat on a helicopter. The changes in operating systems, network environments, and user expectations generally make software programs out of date faster than the copyright runs out (Wikipedia).
A law that has been proposed is the U.S. Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA); this law is very controversial in that it grants extensive rights to companies. Under this proposed law the companies would be able to shut down unauthorized software copiers without court involvement. This law is similar to Title II of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act in that it allows the copyright holder to demand the internet service provider (ISP)