Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines piracy as, "an act of robbery on the high seas or an act resembling such robbery" (885). From this we can define software piracy as an act of robbery on the information superhighway. Many people do not see it as such. Even though the average person would never consider going into a convenience store and stealing a stick of gum, many have no qualms about stealing thousands of dollars worth of software. In a study done by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, 43 percent of adult Canadians who were asked thought that pirating software for personal use was OK. This feeling has come about in several ways. Older computer users, with Unix backgrounds, remember many of the applications they used as freeware. Software pirating also results from users having access to freely downloadable applications, evaluation copies, and public betas. This leads users to believe that all software is free. While many downloadable applications carry......

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Title: Piracy In The 21st Century
Approximate Word Count: 1474
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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