The computer distributes. The Pirates consequently push the issue of asylum policy on the political. #00:16:54-8# Interviewee 1: Es hatte auch mit dem Chip-Karten System zu tun. Bringung von Asylsuchenden in Berlin beschreiben? Kapitel 3 wird besonders hilfreiche Hardware, deren Aufbau und Funktion beschreiben. Kapitel 4 befasst sich mit meinen Experimenten mit der Hardware und dem Funkprotokoll. Kapitel 5 gibt eine bersicht ber die Reverse-Engineering-Technik die von Jan Krissler und Karsten Nohl verwendet wurde.
Apple actively and aggressively enforces its intellectual property rights to the fullest extent of the law. Apple works closely with the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) to combat software piracy worldwide.
Software Piracy
Software piracy (the illegal copying of software programs) is a worldwide problem — more than $11 billion is lost to piracy every year. Because software is valuable, and it is easy to create an exact copy of a program from a single computer, software piracy is widespread.
The illegal copying of software programs is a crime! In the United States and many other countries, copyright law provides for severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyrighted material. Copyrighted material includes, but is not limited to, computer programs and accompanying sounds, images and text. Under U.S. law, infringement may result in civil damages of up to $150,000 and/or criminal penalties of up to five years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine.
Please join Apple in its piracy prevention efforts. You can report incidents of software piracy to the SIIA (see below section “Report Piracy to the SIIA.”) Also, you can help your business avoid serious problems with sound software asset management practices as explained in the section below.
Software Asset Management
It is important to manage software well, just as you would any other valuable company asset, in order to avoid serious problems. Apple aggressively enforces our company’s proprietary rights under the U.S. copyright laws, but we know that poor software asset management often keeps people from complying with the law.
Report Piracy to SIIA
You may report suspected piracy of Apple software to the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). Visit SIIA’s Web site http://www.siia.net/Divisions/IP-Protection-Services. Apple is a member of the SIIA.
500,000. That’s the number of takedown requests Microsoft has submitted to Google just over the past month related to copyright infringement and software piracy.
Extrapolating that for a whole year—assuming half a million takedown requests a month—that would be six million websites attempting to illegally distribute Microsoft operating systems or applications. And, those are just the ones that are identified. Who knows how many slip through the cracks or fly under the radar?
Windows is by far the dominant operating system in use around the world, and the Microsoft Office suite has a virtual monopoly on the productivity software market. A good chunk of the Windows and Office software in use is pirated, though.
Microsoft has even had issues with unethical use of its software by paying customers. It recently reduced the number of licenses available for TechNet subscribers to minimize the chances of piracy.
When it comes to piracy there always seems to be some segment of the population that justifies theft of content based on its cost or availability. For example, with movie piracy the rationale seems to be that if a studio would make a movie available online at a reasonable price people wouldn’t need to download rogue pirated copies.
I assume the same argument could be made about Microsoft software. Purchasing an upgrade for Mac OS X only costs about $30, but the upgrade from one version of the Windows operating system to the next can cost up to $200 depending on which flavor of Windows you upgrade to. The Microsoft Office suite starts at $120 and doesn’t even offer any upgrade pricing discount.
In my opinion it’s a very weak rationalization to claim that piracy is somehow justified by the cost of a product. Whether it costs $5 or $500 theft is theft. There are plenty of free alternatives for those who can’t afford the Microsoft software or simply choose not to spend the money.
But, just playing devil’s advocate, it’s possible that Microsoft could curb or minimize piracy by pricing the software at a more reasonable point that is more accessible to users with limited budgets. There has to be some point that strikes a balance between the amount of money Microsoft loses due to piracy and the amount of revenue Microsoft could gain by boosting sales with lower prices.
On the other hand, Microsoft just reported record quarterly revenue, so perhaps it’s doing just fine despite the rampant piracy. Microsoft could lower its pricing and possibly raise revenue even higher, or it can just continue sending half a million takedown requests per month to Google.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.