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No one denies that the Internet is the most useful tool for research, business, and education, yet the Internet is the subject of a topic that is as controversial as the legalities of abortion or homosexual rights: ethics and the Internet. Many racy, illegal, and controversial materials are available on the Internet such as pornography and pirated software; on the other hand, many educational tools are on-line as well. This brings a need for a case of ethics in the Internet realm. A definition of terms used regarding the Internet is necessary for the full understanding of how unethical data broadcasts itself around the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide computer network of home, organizational, corporate, and government computers. It is necessary to understand that the Internet is not just composed of web pages, but of files, e-mails, newsgroups, internal computer networks, personal computers, etc. ; the media that most often provide the deemed controversial content are explained here.
Electronic mail (E-mail) enables computer users to communicate with and transmit digital material to other groups of users (Internet). Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a chat system in which messages are displayed real-time (i. e. messages are transmitted immediately and directly to however many receiving computer, all of which are connected to a remote server). File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows remote computers to transfer information stored in files (such as reports or software) efficiently (Internet). Each medium of spreading information plays a large role in the spread of pirated software (Jordan).
Software piracy, often called warez as a vulgar term by the pirates themselves (Warez), is not just a problem to people; it is a problem to the software industry of the world. A 1999 study conducted by the International Planning and Research Corporation for the Business Software Alliance and Software & Information Industry Association (forthwith referred to as the BSA and SIIA, respectively) shows that, though the percentage of pirated software has reduced in the past 5 years, the per capita expense of the software industry due to piracy has grown. Additionally, the rate of software piracy is still 36 percent (i. e. 36 out of every 100 programs worldwide are pirated; this number is based on the global populations PC business software applications), which is rather substantial (1999). The fact that the rate is 26 percent may lie in the fact that many so-called software pirates hide behind myths that they believe protect them. For instance, there are myths that it is legal for one to post links to pirated software on ones site, or that a disclaimer of acceptable usage will shift liability to someone else (Warez).
The fact of the matter is you could be liable for anything that you do that contributes to the infringement of copyrighted works (Warez). Another study conducted by the Student Monitor may also give insight as to the reason that the rate of software piracy is so high pirated software is very easy to acquire! This study finds that 47 % of polled college students borrowed some of the software they use for school from family and / or friends and 20 % downloaded full versions of these program directly from the Internet (Software). Perhaps the reason that money lost due to piracy has increased finds its roots in the actual heart of why software is pirated: money (or the lack thereof, in the case of the pirate). Computer software has grown increasingly expensive in the past few years; many people seek to find their software free (or at a reduced price), and in this folly, another myth is brought out: Software is expensive (Warez) and it is okay to download programs as long as you delete them after 24 hours (Warez).
The VSA gives a good analogy in its response to this myth: Cars are expensive, too in the same way you can not use pirated software and pay for it later (Warez). Unfortunately, with this loop, more people pirate the software due to its expensive nature, and the software industry keeps increasing their price to cope with the economic loss due to the pirates actions. There is a certain irony to warez sites in that, though they spread free software, they generally have pornographic banners advertising a commercial pornography site, and are compensated for these advertisements. Many of these sites are also difficult to navigate as most of their links send you to a porn site (Jordan). Consequently, the pirates cheat each other in this manner. There are software companies and authors that distribute their software free (freeware or public domain software), or for a test drive of sorts (shareware).
Shareware is a term used for software that encourages you to buy the software after a certain period. This software usually has all the features enabled, but, unfortunately, there is no way to stop people from just using full-version shareware outright even if certain features are disabled after a period. The reason behind this is that many hackers and pirates have the knowledge to reverse engineer (take apart) a program and modify (commonly called patching) it to have the features enabled forever, or to get rid of nag screens. The official U. S. law for copyrighted software penalizes violators with either or both civil and criminal punishment.
Damages sought by the software company can reach to $ 140, 000 for each illegally copied program or work; the court can authorize U. S. Marshals and / or the local law agencies to seize evidence of the crime unannounced; and, if convicted, one may be fined $ 250, 000 or sent to jail for a term of five years, or both (Software). Another ethical problem arises in plagiarism (to put your name on a piece of work any part of which is not yours (Plagiarism) ) and the increasing availability of web pages and commercial Internet companies offering many term papers, essays, and reports. As recently as three or four years ago, ads for plagiarized, pre-written, or custom written papers would be regarded as obscure, were found only in alternative magazines, and were a small threat for serious colleges.
Now, however, many sites serving this purpose are available, sites with names such as The Evil House of Cheat (Cybercheats), which enables its users to Research Papers Online (Cybercheats) (i. e. purchase pre-written term papers and essays via the Internet). However, these companies maintain, they are merely providing learning materials for inquisitive students (Cybercheats); their services are becoming a huge problem on university campuses around the nation and world. Their sites are receiving thousands and millions of hits (which are visits to the sites) and the owner of A 1 Term paper says that he has sold between 1, 000 and 2, 000 papers, (Cybercheats) this just being in the first year of the companys operation. Sites providing this type of content, between the years of 1997 and 1998 alone, more than doubled 28 to 72 sites providing commercial content of this type, respectively (Cybercheats).
There are currently hundreds of these types of sites (Jordan). Currently, universities (such as Boston University) are taking action against these companies which engage in the sale of term papers by commencing in sting operations charging those captured with mail and wire fraud, racketeering, and breaking law[s] against term-paper sales (Cybercheats). Those charged believe that their actions are legal and take the stance that wha...
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Research essay sample on Term Papers Pirated Software
