Software Piracy
Ethical issues concerning software piracy
Software piracy has been described as a criminal act whereby a software program that is under the copyright is reproduced as well as distributed, piracy and illegal copying tends to have an impact on the software developers’ users and even the distributors. The users believe that it has posed a rise in risks for spreading viruses, lack of customer support, and even moral issues like fines, prosecution, and charges. Piracy also affects the work of the software developers, whereby they lose profit due to the reduction in sales (Damilare, 2019). They also face the problem of less feedback from the users, and these programs become more expensive. Software piracy has been associated with counterfeiting, and it has involved reproducing the original software programs and reselling them in the form of original copies. Illegal copies are also downloaded online, and the software developers’ talent has slowly been killed.
How the software industry deal with the violators of software copyright law
The software industry has dealt with violators of copyright law by adopting the copyright act. The act has permitted the work copies to be made in some circumstances, even if the copyright holder is not authorized. Specifically, the copy owners may make additional copies to be placed in the archives. This is a critical step in utilizing the computer program and even maintenance purposes. Nonetheless, these individuals are protected by the first sale doctrine, which means that they have a right to resell their copies. They have also adopted the same views of the European Union and the European court of justice (Hypertec Direct, 2019). It holds that the copyright holder is not opposed to the resale of software that has been digital. Nevertheless, the first sale rule of copyright exhaustion has also maintained that ownership can be transferred, but licensed software cannot be sold.
How school districts can prevent illegal software from being installed on school computers
Illegal software must not be installed on the school computers. The installation of a firewall may do this. The firewall can be installed on a district’s or even the school’s network server in a bid to assist in protecting the entire network. Commercial virus protection software can also be installed. The software could be essential in scanning all the files present on a computer. Some of the virus- protection software repairs the infected files, and they delete malware that may have existed on the computer (Hirayama, Okayasu, Yamamoto, Mizuno & Kikuno, n.d). Some examples of commercial virus protection virus software include pop- up blocker software and spyware blocker software. Security software related to the operating system should be periodically updated. The update process can be automated to mean that it is done together with the windows update function in the internet explorer program.
References
Damilare, O. (2019). Hard facts about software piracy. Red Points Blog | Brand protection & anti-counterfeiting. https://blog.redpoints.com/en/hard-facts-about-software-piracy
Hypertec Direct. (2019, October 10). Software piracy facts. https://hypertecdirect.com/knowledge-base/software-piracy-facts/
Hirayama, M., Okayasu, J., Yamamoto, T., Mizuno, O., & Kikuno, T. (n.d.). Generating test items for checking illegal behaviors in software testing. Proceedings of the Ninth Asian Test Symposium. https://doi.org/10.1109/ats.2000.893631