Software piracy: A hard nut to crack - A problem of information security

Abstract

Software piracy is becoming increasingly rampant in the world. In order to effectively check this trend, we analyse the present situation in both developing economies and developed economies. Through a comparison, we conclude that software piracy can be psychologically, economically, technologically and institutionally based. Results show that the age of an individual as well as a country's stage of development and the quality of governance have the largest impact on the incidence of software piracy. Mature age, greater economic and political freedoms are shown to have opposite effects on piracy. Greater diffusion of the Internet and of computer technologies, other things equal, actually promote the legal use of software. Higher access prices help to reduce piracy. Overall, psychological, economic, institutional, and technological factors may exert influences on software piracy to some extents. Finally, some suggestions are offered. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.