Further explantion and identifying some of the suspects.

Infringement

Software License Infringement or piracy, are popular topics of discussion, especially with how widespread it has become. The word piracy contains so many negative connotations while simultaneously captivating people’s minds with images of common people finding ways to circumvent governments and laws. A quick Google search of "software piracy" results with the popular digital content sharing website thepiratebay.org, as one of the top results (Google). The key issue with piracy is that when software is purchased, one becomes a licensed user rather than an owner. This fact is then either unknown by the user or the user is aware, but still considers the software to be their property and thus feels free to share it. Software companies argue the ethics of this and seek legislation to clearly define software as copyrighted material.

Infringing Organizations and Individuals

Organizations that take part in aiding the distribution of pirated content often defend themselves based on the rights to share digital content in foreign countries, but these websites can be used by anyone around the world and with that the issue arises. The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes Bit Torrents, a sharing protocol used to distribute large files, and the creators defend the site by referencing local laws and that the only information being stored on their servers are the links to the digital downloads stored in individuals computers. Though The Pirate Bay defends itself from the law, its approach is often juvenile (Neij). Other services allow users to pay a subscription fee in order to host digital content on their servers where it cannot be tracked. Within the countries that these websites are hosted, copyright laws do not prohibit the sharing of this content and in the event that the laws change, the servers for some are hosted in multiple countries with loose copyright laws (Libbenga). These groups have all found a way to make a profit off of sharing others software.

While peer to peer sharing networks get most of the attention, the main issue lies with the peers, the individuals seeking and sharing content through these networks. Without the existence of the networks, individuals will still find their own ways of sharing software with others. Perceived ownership of software is cited as a reason for sharing, but part of it is the selfish desire to save money as most pieces of software costs hundreds of dollars to purchase. Knowing the inevitability of piracy, Bill Gates references the piracy of the Windows operating system in China, submitting to the idea by saying "As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours," in the hope that users would license the operating system the next time (Grice). By this logic, the more individuals that are exposed to pirated software, the likely hood of them purchasing a license in the future increases.

Sources:

Google. (n.d.). Software Piracy. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://www.google.com/search?q=software+piracy

Grice, Corey. (1998, July 2). Gates, Buffet a bit bearish. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-212942.html

Libbenga, Jan. (2006, June 5). Pirate Bay resurfaces, while protesters walk the street.
Retrieved November 29, 2009,
from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/05/pirate_bay_reemerges/

Neij, Fredrik. (2004, Sept. 14). EA Response. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://static.thepiratebay.org/ea_response.txt