Case study: Crime That Pays (and Pretty Well, Too)

Ans.: Digital piracy the illegal distribution and copying of software for personal or business use.
It cuts right to the perception, protection and enforcement of IPRs. Software pirates can be
anyone from an individual making an unauthorized copy of a software product. Software
technology was facing problem of digital piracy. Software piracy is the illegal distribution and
copying of software for personal and business use. In USA software is automatically protected
by federal copyright law from the moment of its creation. US copyright act grants the copyright
owner the exclusive right to protect the copyrighted work and to distribute the copies of it.
According to US federal law copyright infringement is illegal and punishable. But worldwide
software piracy is very high and the penalty is very less for it. Software maker, organization,
companies have to bare billions of dollars losses every year. Governments, institutions,
organization, and companies are interest in per suing solution to the piracy problem and for this
they develop legal codes to fight software industry association BSA (Business Software
Alliance). The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) made efforts to spur government to toughen laws. BSA
maintains more than 80 countries and each nation unit works to promote legal online world by
negotiating with governments and consumers in the international software and internet markets.
Its working to educate consumers on software management and copyright protection, cyber
security, e-commerce and other internet related issues. BSA members include companies like
Microsoft, Adobe, Dell, IBM, Intel and Apple computer. Software makers, government and
associations, acting both singly and jointly, have successfully lobbied transnational industries to
help police piracy. In the early 2000 for the 184 members nation of the World Intellectual
Property Organization(WIPO) pledged to protect intellectual property worldwide by developing
IPR treaties.