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Is
Your Software Legal?
Suppose
you spend months creating a piece of music. You put
time, money, and many late nights into it, and finally
it is finished. The next day, someone comes and freely
copies your work and gives it away to everyone. How
would you feel?
When
we were kids, we would read stories of pirates with
their daring raids on merchant ships, and their buried
treasure on some out-of-the-way island. However, in
spite of their intrigue, pirates were really common
thieves, who eventually met the strong arm of the law.
Today,
we do not see much of the pirates of our story books.
However, a modern form of our storybook tale has
emerged.
Software
piracy is a major problem, driven largely by the fact
that we all love something free. If we can save money
no matter how we might do it, then we think it a good
thing.
Software
comes under the category known as ‘intellectual
property’. An author, whether of a book, piece of
music, painting, or software, all own that work
because they created it. To keep the integrity of
their work and to provide them with control of its
distribution, the author takes out a copyright on
their work.
All
computer software is copyrighted. However, software is
different in its copyright than are books or
paintings, in that the software is only licensed. When
you purchase software for your computer, you do not
actually own the software; rather you have paid for
the license to use that software on your computer.
Your continued use of the software is governed by
whether or not you abide by the terms of the license.
All
software, unless it is specifically licensed for
several computers, is licensed for use on a single
computer only. Most current software titles have
product keys, which uniquely identifies each software
disk. This no doubt arouses the resentment of many, as
it means you must buy multiple copies if you have more
than one computer. Many folk do not like this
restriction, and they freely copy and distribute
software to others, thus avoiding the need for them to
buy the software.
While
it is allowed under the software copyright law to make
a backup copy of your own original software, it is a
breach of that law to copy and distribute the software
to anyone else. Software piracy is very common, and
because of this it is regarded as ‘cool’ and OK,
but in reality it is illegal. If caught, these
software pirates face hefty fines and possible jail
sentences.
The
better way is buy your own original software from its
manufacturer. Not only do you have a clear conscience,
but you also are guaranteed a good clean copy of the
software, with a warranty as well. With illegal
software, you frequently get a bad copy and a suspect
product key. You are also excluded from any technical
support should you run into difficulties.
For
further information or help with your PC, please call
us on 4163 8061, or email us at info@mcsyarraman.com.au.
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