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Introduction{1}

One year before the new millennium, losses from software piracy are still a drain on the global economy. Creators, authors, programmers, and software companies try with every mean to deter the loss of billions of $US. Losses in dollars are still high, even if the piracy rates is lower than the previous years. In 1997 the losses came up to $11.4, 0.2 billions more than 1996 {2} . The above contradiction in terms of rates and $ losses could be explained by the increment {3} of software demand or the growth of the software markets. In this essay of 1600 words the most {4} , I tried to spot some useful issues about copyrights, as a reference for future dissertations or thesis , and software rights as well. Laws, Results {5} , figures and percentages come from reports and studies conducted by major police organisations and institutions (please see sources {6} ).

1Copyright, body of legal rights that protect creative works* from being reproduced, performed, or disseminated by others without permission*** . The owner of copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce a protected word; to prepare derivative works that only slightly change the protected work; to sell or lend copies of the protected word to the public; to perform protected words in public for profit; and to display copyrighted works publicly. These basic exclusive rights of copyright owners are subject to exceptions depending on the type of work and the type of use made by others. * The term work used in copyright law refers to any original creation of authorship produced in a tangible medium.

Copyright does not protects the ideas or concept, it only protects the way in which the author has expressed an idea or concept.

The first law for general copyright enacted {7} in 1710 by the British Parliament and was the ' Statute of Anne '. This forbade the unauthorised printing, reprinting, or importing of books for a limited number of years. In the United States the first copyright law enacted in 1790 because of the necessity ' to encourage creativity by protecting authors ' and ' to promote progress of science and useful arts '. After many expansions and modifications the final law -which still remains the legal base of any copyright law- was voted on 1st of January 1978 reliant on 1976's mainframe.

All copyrights for works created after this law (1978) last for the time the work was created and for 50 years after author's death. However the duration of these copyrights varies for different kinds of creation.

Copyrights can be sold or licensed to others like publishers, motion-picture companies etc. with written contracts. This licence can be terminated by the author's will or to expire 35 years after the sale or licence of the copyrights.

Infringement is any violation of the copyright, either in word-for-word form of reproduction or when it appears as a ' substantial similarity '.

In contrast, the use of other people's work for quotations or for academic purposes as {8} illustration, clarification, or summarising it {9} is not considered as an infringement but as a fair use .

The Universal Copyright Organisation is the international organisation for © protection created in 1955 and *** {10} counts more the 70 nations. Every nation member of this organisation must provide to an author or creator the same copyrights , which provided to him by his nation *** . The rapid development of publishing and its necessity for efficient copyright protection led to the 'Berne Convention', which protects without formalities and time-consuming procedures. Another convention called 'Buenos Aires Convention', which established between the North and South American nations *** {11} requires the statement ' All Rights Reserved' clearly stated with the copyright statement.

1. Copyright definition: Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia: http://www.sbaonline.sba. gov/hotlist/crdef.html (Contributed by: J. Thomas McCarthy)

Differs from copyright and is used {12} in cases of invention or discovery of a new useful art, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, asexual reproduction of any distinct and new variety of plant o riginal and ornamental design for an article of manufacture*** product of genetic engineering (seeds, plants, & cultivars), genetic engineering method itself.

2.Definition - Patent : Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/hotlist/crdef.html

Software

Congress of the Unites States in passing the law of 1976 for Copyright protection recognised that it could not foresee all the new methods of fixing or storing information. Accordingly, it broadly defined the category of copyrightable material to include all '' original words of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device ''. Therefor an author who writes a story on a computer keyboard and saves his work in a magnetic diskette has ''fixed'' the work on a ''copy'' sufficient for copyright protection.

Software Piracy:

Is when someone purchases one single copy of a copyrighted programme and installs it in more than 1 computers . For example, if you by 10 single-user licenses for a product yet install it onto 20 machines, you are using 10 illegal copies.

Similar to multiple installation, this involves an end-user (or company employee) copying programs illegally or using unlicensed software in the work place.

Occurs when a program is installed on a server (rather than from individual PCs) and is accessed by more end-users than the company has bought licenses for.

This happens when software is downloaded from the web and installed but not paid for. There are other types of software piracy (grey software, counterfeit software, etc.).

Illegal duplication of software , the c.d. or floppy disk's covers are well designed and printed in quality. The documents or manual coming with this kind of software can look real but they are not.

As a first reason of the existence of Software Piracy*** we can consider the lack of awareness of copyright laws between users. When a user finds a useful programme will not think about copyright and the losses of the programmers,*** this seem to be so far from his computer , piracy apparently belongs to the dark world of hackers and wizards. On the other hand*** other users believe that if they share a copy of a useful programme with their friends nobody is harmed. In addition a restraining factor for buying legal software is the price. After a small research in the prices of some real useful and qualitative software the results were the following: Adobe Photoshop®v.5.5 A world-standard image-editing programme for print and the Web, price for Windows US $ 609*, upgrade :US $199 Adobe Premiere®v.5.1 A powerful programme for professional digital video editing price for Windows US $ 895*, upgrade : $ 199 Adobe Illustrator®v.8.0 The industry-standard illustration software, price for WIN98 : U S $ 412*, upgrade : $ 129 *Estimated street price - U.S. and Canada only. Microsoft Windows® 98 Retail Full Prod. Estimated Price: U S $ 209 upgrade Estim. Price: U S $109.00 Microsoft Office® 2000 full version U S $ 499 What the prices are *** a user has to be careful and thoughtful before decide , and he has {13} to keep in mind that such kinds of actions can lead to a profit loss of software creators and it must be avoided .

1. Inadequate documentation 2. Lack of technical support 3. Lack of software upgrades 4. Danger of prosecution.

'The U.S. software industry in 1998 contributed to the U.S economy 806,900 workers; $55.6 billion in wages; $12.3 billion in federal and state taxes'.

'The U.S. software industry in 1997 contributed a $13 billion surplus to the U.S. trade balance and is projected to contribute a $20 billion surplus by the year 2000'. 'Without this surplus of the U.S. software indusry , the U.S. economy's trade deficit would have been nearly $50 billion in 1997 - some 36 percent higher than th actual amount'

The U.S. software industry in 1996/7 contributed almost 750,000 jobs and $21 billion in tax revenues to economies outside the United States.

In our days, the major reasons of the *** *** S.P and S. Counterfeiting are: 1. Cheap and easy to use copy devises *** , available to everyone. 2. Technological achievements provide the abilities for mass copies and high -'near perfect' quality of replicated programmes.

There are currently two industry groups which are the Software Publishers Association and the Business Software Alliance (B.S.A). These two organisations try to fight against software piracy and illegal use of copyrighted material and they targeting specially on corporate piracy. Before a case of software piracy goes to court *** the approach of Microsoft Corporation and many other big companies 'depends on how educated the marketplace is. The most common aspect of piracy are dealers who sell PCs with pirated software and charge the buyer for the software. As soon as we discover a culprit we charge him {14} . Large users, who should be the most honest, will be given plenty of warnings before we {15} proceed with legal action. Our approach towards smaller companies is educational rather than legal'. In case that a PC dealer or a company finally prosecuted *** the penalties can reach: *** In criminal courts: potentially, imprisonment for up to ten years, substantial late fees, and/or confiscation of assets. In the civil courts: injunctions to stop any further use of the software and to delete or hand over illegal copies (punishable with imprisonment if breached) payment of damages or the profits made from illegal use or distribution to compensate the copyright holder payment of the costs of the case (which can be substantial) Courts can grant orders to enter and search premises, and to seize illegal copies and the computers on which they are loaded *** {16}

' If someone copy and use unlicensed programmes, it would be better these to be our programmes', the richest man on the planet and creator of the Microsoft corporation said. Even this play on words can give opportunities for endless arguments about if software piracy can be profitable as many people claim that serious corporations and organisations *** ,*** even if they have illegal or limited software,*** prefer to register and buy it in order avoid *** the scandal of prosecution or the fine. Similarly when a young kid takes an illegal copy of a programme for testing, and he founds it useful, later the same kid as a student or a professional will choose the same product. But this time the software will be legal in order to be accompanied of documentation and technical support. There are companies like " 'Adobe' " Corporation and " 'Borland' " which have developed outstanding products and through their utility managed to reduce the piracy rates and frequency. To conclude we 'can not blame everything on piracy if a company got problems'.{17} ' All business can succeed or fail' {18} and it depends exclusively on the quality of their software.

{19}

'The software industry lost at least £2.9 billion in the United States because of software theft, and $11 billion through the world'. 'For the U.S. economy at large, software piracy resulted in 109,000 fewer jobs, $4.5 billion in lost wages, and nearly $1 billion in lost tax revenues. 'Non-U.S. economies lost 520,000 jobs and $13.7 billion in tax revenues as a result of piracy'

the following paragraphs go after the charts and the diagrams.

Numbers are just numbers, police measures can not stop the copyright and software piracy. If computer piracy will keep growing on *** it depends on us, either users or authors. We are the ones who have to realise that software piracy and every other kind of piracy must stop. We have to consider and respect the principles of free trade and the copyrights . This is the only way for the newborn Internet society to be flourished and to reach the highest levels of prosperity.

Each year, BSA calculates estimated dollar losses as a result of software piracy and the percentage of legitimate software usage in specific countries. These estimate are based on software and hardware shipments in a particular country. Retail prices of software are used, reflecting losses to the entire software industry -- publishers and the distribution channel. Hardware and software shipments are obtained from numerous commercially-available resources***

Dear Panagiotis,

You have certainly done a lot of research and have taken lots of words, in fact over 33 % more than desireable to present a lot of information.

However, quantity is only one part of the package. You might need to improve structuring and presenting your text in a more readable form, with an introduction, connections and a conclusion. These aspects make a paper readable, and research applicable. Please consider the suggestions made for your final version.

Norbert

Grade: 5.5/6

Error Statistics

7 ARTICLE - you have made a mistake with the use of the article ( ie a, an, the or zero) with a noun or noun phrase. First check that you know whether the noun is countable or uncountable, and singular or plural

5 NOT THE BEST CHOICE - your meaning is clear but this is not a good way, or not the best way, to express it. This may relate to one word, or a phrase or a whole sentence. You may need to change the syntax or the vocabulary or both.

14 PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

9 PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

17 PUNCTUATION - punctuation mistake. For example, you may have used a comma when it is not necessary, or a capital letter is required.

1 REFERENCE - you have made a mistake in how you refer to something previously mentioned. You may have used the wrong word to do this; or it may not be clear what you are referring to, or the referent (= the thing you are referring to) may be too far away; or a pronoun is needed

1 RELATIVE PRONOUN - you have used the wrong relative pronoun form (who, which, that, where, whose, preposition + who/which, zero relative); or you have used it incorrectly; or a relative pronoun is needed.

1 SENTENCE ERROR: COMMA SPLICE - you have incorrectly joined two main (or independent) clauses with a comma. You need to make two separate sentences, or use a different connective or marker to join the clauses.

6 SENTENCE ERROR: INCOMPLETE SENTENCE - there is no main verb. Check whether you have used the wrong kind of logical marker at the beginning of your 'sentence'.

2 SENTENCE TOO LONG - your sentence needs to be made into several shorter ones.

1 SENTENCE ERROR: RUN-ON SENTENCE - your 'sentence' consists of two main clauses not properly connected. You may need to put in a full stop to make two separate sentences

8 NUMBER OF NOUN - you have put a word in the singular when it should be plural, or vice versa. Or perhaps the noun is countable and you thought it was uncountable, or vice versa. Check that you have used the right article, as well.

5 SPELLING - the word is wrongly spelled.

2 VERB TENSE - you have put the verb in the wrong tense eg present instead of future, or continuous instead of simple.

8 VERB FORM - you have used the wrong form of the verb. For example, singular instead of plural, infinitive instead of -ing, wrong auxiliary, passive instead of active or vice versa, etc.

8 VOCABULARY MISTAKE - you have used the wrong word. Check in the dictionary.

1 WORD FORM - you used a word in the wrong form. For example, you have used the adjective form when you should have used the noun form, or adverb instead of adjective etc.

4 WORD ORDER - you have written a group of words in the wrong order. Re-arrange.

1 SPACE PROBLEM - you have put a space where there should not be any, or a space is missing.

Error type:

ARTICLE - you have made a mistake with the use of the article ( ie a, an, the or zero) with a noun or noun phrase. First check that you know whether the noun is countable or uncountable, and singular or plural

Error type:

NOT THE BEST CHOICE - your meaning is clear but this is not a good way, or not the best way, to express it. This may relate to one word, or a phrase or a whole sentence. You may need to change the syntax or the vocabulary or both.

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PHRASE CONSTRUCTION - you have used the wrong construction after the verb/noun/adjective/adverb; for example, you might have used 'to' instead of 'that', or an '-ing' form instead of 'to' etc

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type:

PREPOSITION - you have used the wrong preposition, or the preposition is missing, or you don't need a preposition

Error type: