Software piracy has become a worldwide issue, with China, the United States and India being the top three offenders.
In 2022, 6.2% of people worldwide visited software piracy websites.
Software piracy doesn't require a hacker or skilled coder.
Any normal person with a computer can become a software pirate if they don't know about the software laws.
With such a widespread impact, it's important to understand what software piracy is and the dangers it presents.
Software piracy is the unauthorized use of legally protected software, which includes stealing, copying, distributing, modifying or selling the software.
Software piracy is illegal and constitutes a federal crime.
Software piracy may be cheaper than purchasing legitimate software, but there are many dangers that software pirates should be aware of.
Individuals who continue to engage in software piracy risk harming their digital experience by allowing viruses to infect their computers or becoming an online target for authorities.
Increased chances of software malfunction or failure: When software is obtained illegally, there is a greater chance of encountering glitches, errors or failures.
Pirated software lacks the quality control measures that legitimate software uses to test or improve the software to a more functional version, resulting in compromised performance and potentially unstable systems.
Pirates can modify software packages to include malicious code, which puts the software and the user's computer system at risk of compromised data.
Softlifting is the most common type of software piracy.
Hard disk loading is a type of commercial software piracy in which someone buys a legal version of the software and then reproduces, copies or installs it onto computer hard disks.
Counterfeit software is usually sold at a discounted price in comparison to the legitimate software.
Software piracy may be more common than you realize.
Sharing software licenses beyond their intended use: Imagine a small company purchases a software license for a project management tool, allowing access for up to 10 users.
Purchasing software without a valid license key or special authorization: If you obtain software without a valid license, authorization, or special permissions and attempt to sell or distribute it, this is a form of renting-just like copying a video you rented from Amazon Prime and selling it online without authorization.
Selling the contents of a software package separately rather than as a whole: This is a form of OEM unbundling since users are installing individual parts of the system instead of the entire bundled software package.
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This Cyber News was published on www.pandasecurity.com. Publication date: Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:13:05 +0000