Order Number |
897886775674 |
Type of Project |
ESSAY |
Writer Level |
PHD VERIFIED |
Format |
APA |
Academic Sources |
10 |
Page Count |
3-12 PAGES |
Introduction
Technology piracy is the use, purchase and sale of illegal software that is not licensed. This includes both commercial and open-source programs. Apple and Microsoft are some of the companies reported of piracy. They are sued for having unlicensed music operations in their digital music stores.
Microsoft’s operating system is one of the software systems that is illegally used by consumers because of its user friendliness. It is one of the most pirated software. Software pirates do piracy so as to avoid the cost incurred in licensing software that need licensing and to gain more than they should earn for a software as they sell most of the pirated software at a higher price.
Current State of Technology Piracy
Apple developed a software that would release hacked versions of programs such as Pokemon Go. The technology was however hijacked by software pirates and they are using it to distribute pirated IOS apps throughout the apple store. The Apple Store piracy has led to loss of over 450 million U.S dollars.
Various software applications created by Microsoft, such as the current windows 10 and Microsoft office, are being pirated by users as well. The activation key for the software is acquired illegally through cracking the software. The users acquire the activation key from websites. Microsoft cannot detect pirated versions of it’s software currently, such as the Windows 10 operating system, which is more prone to piracy.
The Microsoft company has heavily researched the technology piracy issue that they have been facing. They purchased PCs from India and they discovered that the majority of them were containing pirated Microsoft software. Through cooperation with their partners, Microsoft has launched a campaign to stop the software piracy.
In Depth Exploration of Technology Piracy
The deep dark web hosts the majority of the leaked and pirated versions of Apple and Microsoft software. The software pirated from these companies is sold illegally on the deep web. Clients or users tend to use these pirated versions due to the low running cost of the software, in terms of activation of the software.
The Apple and Microsoft companies are currently working with their key partner companies to try and put a halt to the piracy of their software. It is suspected that some Linux software is engineered to exploit Microsoft software such as the Windows 10. The Apple Company underwent major loss as their software and applications were leaked as a result of their technology being hijacked by technology pirates.
The pirates provided an app that allows the downloading of Apple software and programs without necessarily accessing the Apple store. This led to pirated versions of almost all major apps created by Apple themselves, and also apps that are on the app store.
More recently, Google has been a victim of technology piracy. The virtual environment on Google platform is used to host virtual machines and is a major hub for technology pirates. The virtual machines are currently being run for free on the platform which brings a loss of income to the company.
Technology piracy leads to big losses to a business (Hill, 2007). An example is when Apple Inc. lost over $450 million when their technology was pirated. This brings to a lag in terms of business growth. Technology piracy is an important issue to be discussed and to be brought to awareness for business people because the business suffers big losses, and at times the business potentially might not recover from the losses.
The topic of piracy is of importance to a student after they graduate because they will know how technology piracy takes place and they will therefore be able to protect themselves and their businesses from it. This has affected the property owner mostly since they lose a lot of income and on the distributors and business partners as well.
Some of the streaming services also lost a lot over the years; Amazon in particular has lost a lot of content due to the piracy issue. Many of the sources have developed self interest in making the issue as effective as possible since the scale is still quite substantial. Distributors who always facilitate access to the copyright materials have also faced the wrath economically.
A company dealing in streaming services was also crushed under the lawsuits. Users that are using improperly obtained content have a risk of running into viruses along the office software or some games they download from their software (Piquero & Leeper, 2006).
Technology piracy should be stamped out for businesses to thrive. The big companies such as Microsoft and Apple have undergone loss due to technology piracy. But if a smaller tech firm were to lose a percentage of their income due to piracy, they might not be able to continue operating their business.
Business people need to be aware of this issue and they should invest heavily in curbing technology piracy. The companies running their business on technology should devise ways of detecting pirated technology. The pirated technology has been denied service by the company service provider involved in publishing the original technology (Moores, 2008). Some trends in technology have reached extensive levels and have influenced the technology chains.
Digital revolution has become the main reason behind the trends. The new digital and online ecosystem have proven to have difficulty in dealing with the piracy levels. Many leaders in companies and in industries have demonstrated some effective solutions on innovative business measures.
Many people oppose the idea of stealing something from another person and the same applies to stealing information without authorization from a company. Stealing information from a computer or a technological device is against the law in the majority of developed countries, and many companies like Amazon and Apple face this problem (Piquero & Leeper, 2006).
Technology piracy can be avoided through development and designing of software that protects information and this requires creative ideas, effort, and a group of coders. No company is spared from technological vices and such victims include Amazon and Apple.
There are many instances that various companies have lost data or information that is vital to them or even to the customers they provide services to. However, companies are protected from technological piracy through copyright laws and through creative works (Hill, 2007).
The purchase of a software by a company or individual does not mean the person owns the software, but has the rights to use it on behalf of the owner. To avoid technological piracy, companies have printed seals and cases on their products and software making it easier for users to adhere and read.
Technological piracy mostly involves software and this is the reason why most companies limit the loading of software into one machine to copy just a single backup that should not be shared with anyone else. Hence, a person or company that duplicates and distributes software copies through the internet or physically violates copyright laws.
This paper delves into issues surrounding measures, effects on businesses, and software piracy. Technological piracy does not choose an easier target, with large companies facing the same issues and legal risk on technology piracy. The employees of the companies remain liable for the actions they take.
Employees can put companies in trouble by downloading and duplicating copies of software from the internet thus attracting lawsuits. Researchers such as Charles Hill have offered extensive research on technological piracy on digital media and offered solutions (Yang & Mahmut, 2007).
Technology piracy sometimes referred to as software piracy affects people in different ways and, thus the need to address it on individual levels. Ignorance is not the best defense based on the laws and it is important for companies to educate their employees on the matters of software piracy.
This is because an employee can receive a jail term of five years or a fine of $25,000 (Piquero & Leeper, 2006). However, this has not been easy and companies have resulted in copy protection measures. An example of one such company is Google. The economy globally depends on input through the information technology sector. Companies depend on software to enhance their efforts in gaining competitive advantage.
Software is used to enhance business innovation and solutions which translates to creation of employment and achieving profits. However, technology piracy threatens to cut away new business ideas, development, technological innovations and hence loss of jobs and a loss of profit.
Internet and reseller piracy are both aspects of technology piracy. Many businesses rely on downloading software from the internet thus reducing cost that would be incurred to get them from the manufacturers. Uploading or downloading the software via the internet also makes it easier for employees to access them and reduces the cost of accessing the software or operating system.
However, this technique not only saves time but also leads to software piracy through File Transfer Protocol (FTP), attachment of copies via email, uploading/ downloading copies from the bulletin board.
Relevance to Business People
Unfortunately for those developers and programmers who worked tirelessly to produce the software or product, technology piracy is meant to enrich a section of people while also. It is clear that technology piracy cuts the income levels of the software developers since many businesses and individuals opt for cheaper and pirated products without consideration that they are killing the developer’s innovation (Yang & Mahmut, 2007).
Software developers spend time to come up with ideas and implement them, and the only way they are guaranteed intellectual rights is through the purchase of the same through legal means. The cost of preventing technology piracy is very high since developers try to design their products in such a way that they won’t be pirated. The quality of software produced recently is below par since developers feel that their effort is not rewarded as a result of privacy.
The practice of technology piracy has inherently increased the price of software products making it hard for the community who legally purchases them to afford. Production cost is high and software creators have to increase their price in a bid to recover. The sales volume has been reduced due to piracy and hence reduced profits.
Through increasing the prices of items meant to fight piracy, developers are able recover their cost of production through price increase. Sales volumes decrease as a result of piracy and availability of cheap software (Piquero & Leeper, 2006). As such software businesses have been adversely affected due to loss of revenue translating to a decrease in expansion and development.
The world’s governments also lose a lot of money in terms of taxes through technology piracy. Jobs have been lost in companies that produce those software and companies that buy cheap software are exposed to hackers.
This topic is important since technology piracy sheds light to consumers who are not aware of piracy and the risk involved (Yang & Mahmut, 2007). The topic also enhances knowledge to the public about the evils of technology piracy and how it can affect the economy if not addressed.
Technology piracy increases as technological advancement increases and this has led to ethical concerns resulting in business losses and security breaches for some companies and individual users. Through the purchase of cheap software, companies have been exposed to hackers because pirated software can lack some of the security measures that the non-pirated software has.
Big companies have fallen victims as they try to navigate to cheaper software. Through the hacking of their systems, they can potentially lose money and information that is vital resulting in a loss of their competitive advantage. Such companies are forced to spend additional resources to fight hackers and the losses that coincide with it (Ishizuka, 2004).
Companies such as Apple and Microsoft have carried out three strategies that are aimed at protecting intellectual property and thus reducing a desire for consumers to pirate in addition to adopting techniques that inhibit the act of piracy. Many governments are pressured to provide intellectual protection to software companies by ensuring copyright laws are put in place and enforced by government agencies.
The laws should be enforced and infringers punished heavily in addition to providing education to the community regarding technological piracy. Technological piracy can be reduced through making software available at lower prices to prevent the need for shortcuts. Despite the geographical locations of businesses and users, software companies should make the price uniform to make them equally available to all businesses and users. Technological piracy can be fought through media protections, online activation, registration of codes and this is a sure way of fighting the vice.
Piracy can lead to big losses to tech companies, whether they are big or small. An example is when Apple Inc. lost over $450 million when their technology was pirated by hackers and distributed freely to anyone who would wish to access it. This brings the growth of the business to a plateau, as it has lost revenue from their software and technologies being pirated.
Technology piracy is an important issue to be discussed and to be brought to the awareness of business people because the business world suffers big losses. Sometimes these losses can result in the business having to file for bankruptcy or to leave the industry for good.
This topic is of importance to a student in the business world because they will know how, where, and when technology piracy takes place. They will also know of the consequences for downloading and using pirated software; they will therefore be able to protect themselves and their business from it.