The Twenty First Century Pirate, and the Consequences of their Pillaging as Clint A Wilson Huntington University Author Note Clint A. Wilson, Huntington University Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Clint Wilson, Contact: clint@clintawilson.com Abstract In this short essay we will try to explain and examine the overall consequences of software piracy as well as the ethics surrounding piracy.   The Twenty First Century Pirate, and the Consequences of their Pillaging                         Even though the PC industry is still very young, the amount of software that is being developed is paramount. Software is illegally, borrowed, downloaded, installed, copied, shared, distributed, etc.… on a regular basis. It has become the norm in many circles. According to one article that I have read it estimates the ratio between pirated and legitimate software to be a 1:1 ratio. (Hong Kong Goverenment, n.d.) The facts around piracy are numerous, software is easily copied and shared. So many times people do not even realize they are breaking the law. Everyone from the teenager downloading the latest game on a torrent site to the grandma who is using her grandsons copy of the software for her personal use, are all breaking the law. Another staggering statistic is that according to a blog entry by Scott Steinberg that a “whopping 35 percent of all software installed on PCs worldwide last year was illegitimate.” (Steinberg, n.d.) The biggest issue pertaining to piracy is that so many people do not see it as a problem or even know it is illegal.             You by now may be thinking who is pirating software really hurting? First, it hurts the software industry. It affects the bottom line of the companies who are creating the software for sale. But, this is a victimless crime is it not? Wrong, pirating software does more than just hurt the software company that is producing the software it hurts legitimate users as well. When a software company is unable to reach their profit goals, they cannot lower their prices and sometimes will have to charge more for the software they are creating. There is also a great risk to the person using the pirated software.             The risks to the user that chooses to use pirated software are vast. Pirated software often times are laced with viruses and back door Trojans infecting your computer or your entire network. There is a chance that the software will quit working, or not work properly. You will have no support for your software, security updates, or technical documentation in some instances. You may find that the software you are trying to use is out of date, a trial copy, or even a beta test. The biggest risk to the user who chooses to use pirated software, is potential legal action resulting in steep fines and even jail in some cases.             Now we have to question, what can the people who are affected by pirated software do? The software companies can seek out and try to find users that are stealing their software and seek legal action. They may raise the price of their software to others to make up the lost revenue. The legitimate user who is paying the inflated prices for others, only has one recourse and that is to report people who they know are illegally using software.             The consequences that come from piracy is that the software companies may raise their prices, or may not create new software titles. This limits the legitimate user to either paying more or losing out on software that may be beneficial to them. The user that chooses to use pirated software is not free from the consequences. As already pointed out, they may infect their computer or network with viruses, or be subject to fines and penalties. There is not upside when you look at the big picture of using pirated software.             Reflecting on the use of pirated software, I first need to examine myself. Being someone who used to be a pirate, I question myself now what was the benefit to me? Simply the only benefit was not paying. A few years ago, I realized that my network was comprised of almost all pirated software and decided it was time to stop this madness, and become legit with everything. First, I upgraded every one of my computers from pirated copies of windows to legitimate copies. Then did same with software applications that I used, the ones I did not use was removed from my computers. I used to rationalize like so many pirates do, that I am not hurting anyone, and that the big software company would not be hurt by my decisions. When I finally realized it was theft, plain and simple was when I woke up. My faith leads me to the conclusion, that in God’s eyes pirating software is no different than walking into a bank and stealing money.             In my several years in IT I have encountered piracy on several different levels. As noted before, I would pirate software in the past, and it was commonplace in my first place of employment for most of us to pirate. We would come in to work with our trophies burnt to a CD and shared with the office. One of our biggest clients, we had which was a county government, had several pieces of software that was for personal use only. They had not paid for the commercial license, and was running off of the free personal use editions. This as well as some outright pirated software was found in our initial audit of the client. When we sat down and talked to our main point of contact and explained licensing they quickly gave approval to purchase the proper software. I could fill a book with examples of pirated software I have come across, but will end this part with how I dealt with pirated software in my business. I ran a small computer repair business for several years, with a full storefront for two years. At that time I saw several computers come in with non-genuine copies of windows installed. When I would see this, I would call the client and tell them, I could not work on their computer until their windows license was updated and legitimate. I lost out on a great deal of potential income, but it also allowed me to sleep at nights.             In closing of this report I want to share some statistics with you that was taken from bsa.org (Some Striking Facts About Software Piracy, n.d.). 57% of the world’s PC users are using pirated software. Of these, 57% of users, 5% always use pirated software, 9%, mostly use pirated software, 17% occasionally use pirated software, and 26% say that they rarely use pirated software. A few short years ago in 2011 global PC piracy rate was 42%. If we were to look this at the cost of lost revenue we would see that it is 63.4 billion dollars. If that number does not give us pause as to why we should not use pirated software, then maybe the simple fact it is theft will.   References (n.d.). Retrieved from Hong Kong Goverenment: http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/study_aids/software_piracy_fact/software_piracy_fact_c.htm Some Striking Facts About Software Piracy. (n.d.). Retrieved from BeeBom: http://beebom.com/57-of-worlds-personal-computer-users-run-pirated-software/) Steinberg, S. (n.d.). The Problems with Using Pirated Software. Retrieved from Technology Inc.: http://www.inc.com/software/articles/200609/pirated_software.html