Software, Music, Movies: To Copy…or Not?

Posted: 22 September 2011

Last week I reached the conclusion that in order to save a life of regular chiropractic visits, I could no longer carry around my large, heavy laptop, so I bought a new netbook (a mini laptop). I was telling my housemate that the netbook came with a simple version of Microsoft Word and Excel and that I would probably need to buy the full version in the future. His immediate suggestion was that I could get a copy of a friend’s full version to save me buying one. It did make me think … would that be ok? Could I just ask a tech savvy friend to upgrade my computer at no cost?

To say that media piracy is a large industry would be an understatement. Five years ago, media piracy was estimated to be worth over $50 billion per year and that was when most of it was through CDs and DVDs. With the growth of online file sharing, all that is needed now is an internet connection. With the ease that a person can now obtain free copies of the latest software or movie it does not seem like media piracy is coming to an end anytime soon. I have heard it said, though, that media piracy is a victimless crime and some go even further to claim that such corporations deserve to lose sales because they are greedy and charge the public too much for their products. Read the rest of this entry »