In most countries, any original work such as
software is regarded by the law as the intellectual property of the person who created the
work (the author) and protected by copyright. Copyright
is a law that gives the author the sole right to make copies of the
work and sell them. When software is bought, it contains a licence agreement or
registration card, which gives the user permission to make one backup copy. The user is
not allowed to make other copies of the software without the permission of the
copyrightholder. Software authors are protected by copyright so that they receive money
for their time and effort in writing.Copyright is a law that gives the
author the sole right to make copies of the work and sell them.
The illegal copying of software is called software
piracy. Software piracy costs the Australian computer industry
millions of dollars each year and results in higher prices for software. All computer
software products carry copyright warnings when they are sold. Australia's Copyright Act states that it is a crime to:
• infringe copyright by giving away a copy of software;
• infringe copyright by receiving a copy of software;
• advertise the supply of illegally obtained software.
Penalties are imposed on people caught infringing copyright of software.
Copyright is a moral issue. Is it right to copy software without
the permission of the author? Software piracy is a computer crime. Software authors spend
hundreds of hours developing the software and deserve a return for their efforts. It is
irrelevant that it is relatively easy for anyone with a computer to make copies of
software. If people infringe copyright, authors do not get any royalties and thus they may
be reluctant to spend time developing good software. This may affect future developments
in computer technology.
Some people argue, on the other hand, that they are forced to copy
software. They claim software is so expensive that they cannot afford to buy it. If
software companies reduced their prices, they say, people would not infringe copyright and
the companies would increase sales. This would result in a greater return to the software
authors. Has the cost of software decreased in recent years? Has there been a
corresponding decrease in software piracy?
Copyright restrictions are not the same for all software. For example:
Site licence permits a company or
school to make limited copies of the software for use in the same organisation. Purchasing
a site licence is cheaper than buying multiple copies of a program.
Network licence
allows people to use
a program on a network.
Shareware is
software that users are
permitted to copy and distribute. Users are expected to be honest and pay for the
shareware they use. Shareware is much cheaper than commercial software packages as there
are fewer costs associated with marketing. Also, shareware is not so rigorously tested for
faults before it is released.
Public domain software
has no copyright and can be
freely distributed.
Shareware and public domain are often distributed via mail order
or copied from bulletin boards.
Software companies are adopting many different ways to reduce
software piracy. For example, an Australian company has developed technology that disables
key functions such as print or save in its products. When people want the product, they
receive the code that unlocks the software only after they buy it. If the disk is copied,
the key functions are disabled. But a customer can pass a copy of the software on to
someone else, who can then phone and pay for it themselves. If they purchase the software,
the original customer receives 10 per cent commission. The increased popularity of CDROM
is reducing software piracy as CDs cannot be easily copied (Figure 4.3).
Multimedia is
