According to a survey of over 3000 Canadian students, 47% admitted to downloading pirated software from the Internet and 53% said they regularly swapped software with their friends (including serial numbers and keygens).
The survey also showed:
A: 60% believe that using shared software is not a serious issue.
B: 84% do not consider software sharing to be an illegal activity that warrants punishment.
C:69% disagree that sharing software is unethical Regarding Canadian web users as a whole, only 12% said they were concerned about downloading computer software, of which 17% feared software malfunction, 22% were afraid of hackers and 23% were worried about spyware.
2. Dangerous! or not?
A white paper from the market-research firm 'IDC' reported on the downloading of Keygens and No-CD/No-DVD cracks from websites and P2P Networks.
Main findings:
A: 25% of the websites visited attempted to install potentially unwanted software, or malicious code such as a virus, trojan or spyware
B: 11% of the keygens and cracks downloaded from these Websites contained viruses, trojans or spyware
C: 59% of the keygens and cracks downloaded from P2P networks contained a virus, trojan or spyware All terrifying stuff eh, but doesn't this data also show that 75% of these websites didn't try to install malicious software, and are therefore safe? With a huge 89% of keygens and cracks downloaded from the websites, and 41% from P2P networks also safe?
Experienced downloaders would simply suggest that the best policy is to only use the cracks or keygens supplied with your downloaded software, and to avoid obtaining them separately from any other source.
3. Corporate pirates
A significant rise has been reported by the market-research group Ipsos in the amount of pirated software being downloaded by employees over the last few years. This has been attributed to the increase in employee access to the Internet, unwary staff being duped into downloading software, deliberate risk-taking and bad software management. To try and tackle this phenomenon, 80% of businesses are now monitoring their employees' Internet use.
Software compliance is reportedly an issue in the UK with close to 27% of installed software being pirated, and with unlicensed software found on the majority of corporate computer networks.
4. Spy game
In a proposal by the British government, Internet users suspected of unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material will receive a warning e-mail from their ISP for the 1st offence, be suspended for the 2nd, and permanently banned for the 3rd.
Around six million broadband users download files without permission every year in the UK that software companies claim is costing them billions, and the UK's four biggest internet providers: Orange, Virgin Media, BT, and Tiscali have been in talks with distribution companies over a voluntary scheme in the hopes of avoiding legislation.
1. A star farce
Starforce, who make software copy protection, have been criticised for problems arising from their product being difficult to uninstall, opening up security holes in people's systems, and causing instabilities and conflicts.
In an attempt to show that their software was safe, Starforce set a challenge which gave contestants six weeks to visit their Moscow headquarters at their own expense with a PC that was still under warranty, install the protection software on the premises and then prove that the CD/DVD drive no longer worked (one of the many symptoms reported). If the drive worked, the company would then name and shame the person on their website.
After six weeks, when no one had taken them up on their offer, Starforce announced that their software had been proven to be safe.
2. Open-source is the way
It is believed that in five to ten years, most of the software that we use will be free. This is a result of the ever more prevalent open-source strategies being employed that allow talent from all over the world to collaborate on a product for the benefit of everyone.
The idea of packaged products is disappearing, and because there are always more people involved in an open-source community, it is inevitable that a free software project will eventually be regarded as functionally better than any commercial, closed-source effort.
This may not be all that far off, as the increasingly popular OpenOffice office suite is believed to be a contender to replace Microsoft Office in the future. It is thought that making money through open-source software downloads will involve selling services that assist with things like installation, configuration, maintenance, and customisation.
There will always be a market for commercial solutions however, and these are expected to dominate more specialised technical and niche areas.
3. FTC cracks down
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has sued two spyware operations that stealthily installed corruptive software downloads. Smartbot-Net (run by Sanford Wallace) and Odysseus Marketing (run by Walter Rines) were both accused of exploiting security vulnerabilities in various applications including MS Internet Explorer.
Smartbot-Net reportedly hijacked their customers' computers, secretly changed their settings, caused computers to malfunction, and captured important data which was transmitted to various servers and complied into a database. As a result, they have been fined over four million Dollars.
Odysseus Marketing's software, posing as an anonymous Peer-to-Peer file sharing program, altered the customer's search engine results, placing Walter Rines' clients first. The spyware also collected personal information, website browsing history, and details regarding online transactions. They have been fined nearly 2 million Dollars.
4. BS Association
The AIC (Australian Institute of Criminology) has judged that piracy statistic reported by the BSA (Business Software Association) have been gravely over exaggerated. Figures regarding their losses and the use of them to help sue alleged copyright infringers are particularly under scrutiny, as the copyright owners have failed to explain how they have arrived at their conclusions.
The BSA has claimed to have lost more than 361 million Dollars in software sales due to piracy, which the report describes as unverified, unreliable and absurd. The data has also been referred to as "self-serving hyperbole that fails to explain clearly how it is based on anything real".
The AIC suggested that these statistics should either be withdrawn, or those responsible for supplying the data must provide clear proof of its validity.
Jon Mills has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Keyboard Synthesizer and Computers and The Internet. Jon Mills has created the TotalDownloader website which provides information on downloading techniques, increasing your speeds, maintaining anonymity, and much more. So get started now with your free 6 part course at. Jon Mills's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.