Software piracy is a huge problem all over the world. It’s not just a problem on the Internet but also in the real world. Piracy stretches from people like you and me but also to the corporate level. During this article we will take a look at where piracy started and where it is today, why it is such a problem, and why software, film and music companies can not stop it. This article is not intended to promote software, film or music piracy but to open the eyes of everyone to what a huge problem this is.
Brief History of Piracy
You could probably trace forms of piracy way back but we will start with bootleg music. Back in the days before the Internet and Cd’s etc. People made bootlegs which mainly came from compilations of unreleased material or live recordings which were sold. Once the VCR was invented it was like the movie industries worst nightmare, now people could copy and trade/sell copyrighted movies. This was a problem but not as big of a problem as it is now. Once computers became affordable for most homes the BBS (Bulletin Board System) was the home of most software pirates. Users traded software on many floppy disks and such. Once the the CD-burner and the Internet came about things really started to take off because a piece of software that before took up many floppy disks could be fit onto one CD disk along with other software. This is when software piracy really became wide spread.
Read the rest of this entry »