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Crime / Software
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2006-04-01 23:36:21-05
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Sofware piracy - friend and foe of the software industry
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Would the software industry want to stop piracy if they could? For the most dominant players the answer is
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Since the very beginning of software production there has been an issue around unlicensed copies. It is just too tempting, with too many good arguments:
"I can't afford to buy it. My friends/competitors also don't. Nobody will know about it. I didn't steal it from somebody who will now be missing it. The big software companies have money enough." Etc. So, the copy is installed and the user, now a 'pirate', goes happily along. According to BSA (bsa.org), a group supported by most software industry ("SI") leaders, the loss from software piracy was about 35 Billion USD in 2004. Leading in piracy are Vietnam (92%), China (90%) and Indonesia (87%). Two questions naturally arise from the SI: Can't we prevent the copying of our software? And would we want to? The last question is a complicated issue, as it would definitely not be in the interest of the largest SI players to force every user to pay for his software usage. It would allow competition to get in by offering cheaper packages. Imagine that each and every person on the planet from tomorrow would be forced either to pay for MS-Windows (currently available in Asia for typically 130 USD) or not being able to use it. The effect would be that most students would use Linux, the increasingly popular freeware operating system, which very well can replace Windows and already does so on some millions of installations, private, corporate and governmental. The student would take his Linux background with him, right into his professional career. The software companies would start developing more commercially available software for Linux and far from gaining profits from sale of Windows, Microsoft would have supported a strong competitor. So virtually nothing is done to protect Windows from being pirated. It comes with a serial number, printed on the manual. So you just have to copy that and you can install X working copies. Easy. OK, Microsoft does make life a little harder for the pirate, e.g. non-critical updates will not be available, but nothing much. Pirate usage of Windows is, in effect, supported by Microsoft itself. Same considerations can be applied to other dominant products. Do we need MS-Office? Or could we do with OpenOffice or StarOffice? The "anti-piracy" policy is at the same time a carefully considered "dumping-policy".
But could Windows be effectively protected? The answer is "in praxis, definitely". Or at least to a degree where piracy would be so difficult that only a fraction of todays installations would be illegal. There are ways to do this protection and many are already in use by companies not having a virtual monopoly to defend. A typical way is that you don't get a serial number with the software package - you have to acquire it when you install the program. You must contact an authorized sales person or the producer directly, or your program will simply not run. To overcome this problem, the pirate may now have to use cracked software, already a major concern. The software you install on your computer is no longer original, but has been modified by someone, somewhere. Very often the modified software will now open your PC to full access over the net and you may never know it. Every keystroke you type, every mail you send, every page you visit, every file on your PC - somebody may now be sitting and watching you. Or, less sophisticated, all your files may be wiped out the 4th of July. Etc. Virusscanners rarely give any protection - this is not a virus. Firewalls may help, but often the cracker can disable the parts of your firewall that would detect himself! So cracked software is dangerous. But the cracks are there. Go to Google. Type in the name of your software package or SI (e.g. "PhotoShop"), followed by the word "crack". Hundreds of sites are offering "solutions" to your problem. WARNING! Do not visit any such sites before you have read below. Some sites will charge you typically 10-15 USD, others will give it for free. You will be presented with "keygens", small programs that generates the authorization codes needed. Or "serials", simple copies of once-legal serial numbers. Or direct "cracks", small executable files you install or copy to a system directory. Be aware that many of these people offering the solution will give you more than you asked for. As stated above, by doing anything with such software you put your PC at a huge risk. In addition, many of the sites will try to exploit weaknesses in your browser and install software. You will see strange behavior, pop-op windows where you didn't expect them, notices about software being installed or your virus scanner might report something. And more likely than not, you will end up with something you don't want. Visiting cracker sites or using cracked software is dangerous. If you want to research the matter do what I did: re-install your machine afterwards! Easy for me as I didn't do this on my working computer (which use Linux anyway), but on a test machine with using my old Windows XP home version. It may be less easy for you. All in all - usage of cracked software is so dangerous that some businesses would even never consider it and rightly so in my opinion. But don't expect Windows or MS-Office to come out with strong copy-protection any time soon. From a profitability point of view it would be a clear mistake Soren Frank Munch
CEO, U5com Co Ltd
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