Economic Consequences of Software Crime.

Essay by hevee December 2003

download word file, 5 pages 4.1

Economic Consequences of Software Crime in 1996 worldwide is the illegal copying of domestic and international software costing $15.2 billion to the software industry, with a loss of $5.1 billion in the North America alone. Some sources put the total up-to-date losses, due to software crime, as high as $4.7 trillion. Estimates show that over 40 percent of North American software company revenues are generated overseas, yet nearly 85 percent of the software industry's piracy losses occurred outside of North America. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) indicated that approximately 35 percent of the business software in the North America were obtained illegally.

It is illegal for a corporation or business to purchase a single set of original

software and then load that software onto more than one computer, or lend, copy or distribute software for any reason without the prior written consent of the software manufacturer. Many software managers are concerned with the legal compliance, along with asset management and costs to their organizations.

Provincial law creates trade secret laws, and most jurisdictions have laws that criminalize the violations of a trade-secret holder's rights. A court will allow a trade secret to be used by someone that discovered or developed the trade secret independently if the holder takes adequate precautions to protect the secret. In 1964, the National Copyright Office began to register software as a form of literary expression.

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. This amendment made software piracy a federal offense, and instituted criminal penalties for copyright infringement of software.

According to federal law duplicating software for profit, making multiple copies for use by different users within an organization, and giving an unauthorized copy...