What is software piracy? How it can be controlled?
Answers
Answer:
Software piracy is the illegal copying, distribution, or use of software. It is such a profitable "business" that it has caught the attention of organised crime groups in a number of countries. It is a critical problem because it undermines the very foundation of the software industry.
TIPS FOR PREVENTING SOFTWARE PIRACY
-Read the BSA “Guide to Software Management.”
-Establish office policies for purchasing software and respecting intellectual property rights.
-Explain to employees the importance of protecting computers from unlicensed software.
-Compare the number of software installations to the number of licenses.
-Obtain any licenses needed for compliance.
-Schedule regular software audits to guard against piracy.
There are five types of software piracy. These include: soft-lifting, hard disk loading, renting, downloading, and software counterfeiting.
Explanation:
Answer:
Software piracy is the act of stealing software that is legally protected. This stealing includes copying, distributing, modifying or selling the software.
Explanation:
How it can be controlled?
Make multiple tiers of that software including a free tier. Charge customers more or less based on how comprehensive the feature set in that tier. Most people actually do not want to steal, give them an option they can afford and without hassle.
Add many features and enhancements often. Pirated software is usually frozen at a certain version and can't get updates because the vendor will not authorize an update without a valid license. Hackers might try to keep up… but you can make it hard for them by constantly updating and upgrading your product. Make so many enhancements and feature additions that pirates will want to buy it to keep up with all the great features.
Bundle the software with online services if relevant. If your software alone is not worth the price to a pirate, perhaps there is an online service which would make it more palatable. For example, if your software is a word processor, add a service that allows saving documents to the cloud or online collaboration with other users. Integrate it with your software but only allow authorized licenses to use the service.
Here are some anti-piracy measures which I think have only limited or no effectivenes:
DRM modules (digital rights management) this is usually a service you would have to pay for, which is intended to make your users have a CD in their drive or check in with some background service running on their computer. This seldom works. Usually hackers crack it anyway and it ends up just causing some discomfort for paying users. This can also cause people to pirate your software instead of buying it because they prefer the hacked version Instead of the DRM.
Require your users to be online to use your software (if the software could be feasibly used offline) it may be tempting to have your users check in with their license every time they use your software but this could likely annoy legitimate customers, and will usually get circumvented by hackers anyway. They can usually setup a local service to spoof the authorization.
Converting your software to software as a service. Nothing will annoy your legitimate users more than making them rent your software instead of owning the license outright. There's nothing wrong with SaaS in general, it's just that anti piracy shouldn't be the reason to use that business model in my opinion.