Definition:

Software Piracy is defined as the unauthorised or reproduction of another’s work and copyright is the exclusive and the assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic or musical material.

In this sense it is clear to see these two terms are closely related. This refers to the breaking of copyright through piracy of the product, the illegal redistribution or the reproduction of another's work without the legal right given by the originator.

This is a problem that many of us are faced with every day, we may not have to money to spare to allow us to purchase a licensed copy of Windows or Microsoft Office. We may not want to wait for the latest episode of House of the Dragon to come out in Australia. When we use a third party software, website or download we are breaking Copyright laws.

Laws are in place to prevent this from occurring and why downloading the latest Justin Bieber album from ThePirateBay is considered illegal, but streaming it through Spotify is legal. ThePirateBay draws money away from the creator of the program as there may be lost ad revenue, loss of licence code purchases and a loss of micro-transactions which discourages the creator from releasing in the future due to the uncertainty of sales and monetary gain. This uncertainty leads to a slower advancement in technology due to the decreased funding in fear of pirates.

When a creator of any piece passes away, copyright control is still legally placed on their developed product for another 70 years.

This presentation tkes a dive into terminology that will come up when discussing Copyright and piracy.

CONCEPTS

Intellectual Property:

Intellectual property is created when the author of the work control how the work is sold and distributed.

A software developer has a right to be acknowledged as the author of an application only if it has been created by him/her. This right of the author is enshrined by the laws of Copyright. Software is an example of an Intellectual property in the same way that a book (painting, song, play, TV program, etc.) is.

The author has the right to control how the work is sold and distributed. In the case of software products, the author is often not so clear because of a number of factors including:

• Is the software author working for a company, on company time and using the company's hardware and software licences?

  • Does the software author's contract state that all software or code created the property of the company? (for example, as a teacher, all resources I create "belong" to the Dept of Education. I (mostly) use Dept hardware and most software I have (eg: Microsoft, Adobe and so on) use Corporate Licences. I am aware that all the resources I create are not my intellectual property, they belong to the Department.

• Is the software author working a commissioned job? If so, the contract may specify ownership of intellectual properties.

The trend in these is to determine ownership of IPs by reading contracts.

Plagiarism:

• Is the appropriating or imitating of another’s ideas and claiming them as your own.

• In terms of software plagiarism becomes less clear because of collaboration in the creation process.

• All work done should be acknowledged.

Copyright Laws:

• Copyright laws are in place to safeguard the intellectual property rights of the authors

• Provides economic incentives for creative activity.

• Copyright doesn’t protect you against another software developer making a similar program.

Licence Conditions:

• Single User License allows customer to make one installation and one backup. Sometimes more may be permitted.

• Site licences permit organisations to install the site licences on a large number of computers.

• Multi-user licences similar to site licences but have a set number of computers allowed to be accessed.

Shareware:

• Shareware is covered by copyright and you require a license to use the product.

• Purchasers are allowed to make and distribute copies of the software.

• Once a user has tested and decided to use it, it must be purchased.

Public Domain:

• Software becomes public domain when the copyrights holder relinquishes all rights to the software.

• Software in the public domain must be clearly marked as such.

• Developing new works based on the product is allowed without restriction.

Open Source:

• Covered by copyright laws but removes many traditional copyrights.

• Source code is available to all to modify and redistribute.

• Modified products must be released using the same licence.

• Open source encourages the collaborative development of software.

Ownership versus licensing:

• Ownership implies you have rights to do as you wish the property.

• Licensing agreements specify the framework in which the program may be used.

• Licensing software prevents users modifying the program without the consent of the author.

Reverse engineering:

• Analysing a product and its parts to understand how it works.

• Then recreate the original product with the same or a similar design.

Decompilation:

• Opposite of compilation.

• Translates the machine executable to higher-level code.

• Allows the design to be easily understood.

Technologies to combat software piracy

Disk copy protection

• Prevented software copying by not allowing certain features of the software to become unusable.

• Over time pirates have been able to identify the disk protection method.

• Protection technologies have advanced but they have been cracked fairly rapidly.

Site License Installation Counter on a Network

• In larger organisations software is installed via network server.

• This network server has a installation counter utility.

• When this counter goes over the specified number in the license, the server will refuse to install.

Registration Code

• A registration code is used to activate products during the initial stage in the installation process.

• For single registration the code is unique, for site or multi-users the code is shared.

• Most registration codes today, are either generated or verified over the internet.

• If registration fails, the product will usually have limited functionality or stop working after a set amount of time.

Encryption Code

• Effectively scrambles the execution code and will only be decrypted via a decryption code.

• When the software is connected to the internet, the decryption key is sent to the user and decrypts the executable.

Back to Base Authentication:

• Validates the application by contacting the software publishers server and checking if the user has a valid licence.

• May be used for every time it is run or just during installation.

• For software that requires internet connection, excellent way for authentication.

Non Copyable Datasheets and DRM

SOURCES:

1. Anon, (2019). Software Piracy and Copyright. [online] Available at: http://sddbasics.weebly.com/software-piracy-and-copyright.html [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].

2. Software Design and Development. (2011). Software piracy and copyright. [online] Available at: https://sddhsc.wordpress.com/hsc/9-1-development-and-impact-of-software-solutions/9-1-1-social-and-ethical-issues/software-piracy-and-copyright/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2019].