Software Piracy

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) gives content owners the right to effectively close down websites. One might think all technology companies would fight, but at least 29, including Microsoft and Apple, support SOPA.

Pirated software saves its users in developing countries more than $2.9 billion annually. So finds a study of manufacturers in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific commissioned by Microsoft.

In a scene more credible inside the game, two gangs of thieves crashed out or blocked in delivery vans, disabled the drivers with tear gas and took off with $500K worth of the hottest unreleased video game of the year.

The BSA issued its annual mis-informational report on software piracy showing that we're squeezing unfair profits out of its members, not the other way around, like we thought.

In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500.

Some Mac App Store apps have been cracked with simple cut-and-paste workaround, a report claims.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA), in conjunction with global market intelligence firm IDC, released its seventh annual study on software piracy on Tuesday. The study estimates that the commercial value of pirated software globally was $51.4 billion. According to the BSA, while losses due to piracy are hard to quantify, the $51.4 billion is most likely lower than the actual losses sustained due to piracy in 2009.

As promised, Microsoft has started offering Windows 7 users an update to the company's anti-piracy software via Windows Update.

Microsoft announced plans to improve efforts to combat piracy of its flagship desktop operating system. An update is coming soon to guard against activation exploits and defend Microsoft, and unwitting customers, against counterfeit copies of Windows 7.

Microsoft said computers in countries with high rates of software piracy are more likely to be infected by malicious code because users are leery of applying security patches.

Driven by increased crackdowns on BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, software pirates are fast-moving their warez to file-hosting Web sites.

There's no question that software piracy is a global problem with a heavy financial impact. But just how heavy it is is a matter of debate.