Software piracy: According to the Business Software Alliance definition, software piracy is the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted

software. This can be done by copying, downloading, sharing, selling, or installing multiple copies onto personal or work computers. Furthermore it is the illegal use and/or distribution of software protected under intellectual property laws Business Software Alliance: Business Software Alliance is the voice of the worlds commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. BSA programs foster technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promote copyright protection, cyber security, trade, and e-commerce. Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a nonprofit trade association created to advance the goals of the software industry and its hardware partners. It is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, BSA is active in more than 80 countries, with dedicated staff in 11 offices around the globe. BSAs global mission is to promote a long-term legislative and legal environment in which the industry can prosper and to provide a unified voice for its members around the world. BSAs programs foster innovation, growth, and a competitive marketplace for commercial software and related technologies. BSA members are optimistic about the future of the industry, but believe that the future does not simply unfold. And, we agree that it is critical for companies to work together to address the key issues that affect innovation. We on the Business Software Alliance strongly opposed and condemned SOFTWARE PIRACY as illegal because of the following reasons: Arguments: 1. It is a STRONG VIOLATION of Republic Act 8293 or Intellectual Property (IP) Code: Intellectual Property Rights in the Philippines are protected by the Intellectual Property (IP) Code (Republic Act 8293). The Philippines is a signatory of the Berne Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). Under the IP Code, original works are protected by the sole fact of their creation. Furthermore, original works are protected regardless of their content, quality, purpose, or the form of their expression. Among other things, the code expressly protects computer programs as literary works. The IP Code also protects the copyright in the manuals and packaging, which accompany the software. Intellectual Property Rights Code protects the copyright owners rights by giving the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain things with the works, which in this case are the computer program, the manuals, and the packaging. These exclusive rights include: The right to copy the whole program or a substantial part of it. The right to adapt or translate the program. The right to rent the program to another person. This means that you may only copy, adapt or rent a computer program if the copyright owner gives you the permission to do this. This permission is given in the form of a license. Every time you purchase a legitimate copy of a computer program, you will receive a license agreement. This agreement will tell you how you may

use the computer program. If you do anything with the computer program, which is not permitted under the license agreement (or the IP Code), then you will have breached the Code and will be liable for the penalties. WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES? 1st offense: Imprisonment of 1 year to 3 years plus a fine ranging from P50,000 to P150,000. 2nd offense: Imprisonment of 3 years and 1 day to 6 years plus a fine ranging from P150,000 to P500,000. 3rd offense to subsequent offenses: Imprisonment of 6 years and 1 day to 9 years plus a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1.5 million. Under Philippine law, the copyright owner may also bring a civil action for infringement of copyright. If the court finds that a breach of copyright has occurred, then it may award an injunction prohibiting further breaches, and/or either monetary compensation for the damage suffered, or an account of profits made as a result of the infringement. The court may also award the copyright owner moral and exemplary damages. Under the new Code, the Intellectual Property Office may order the cancellation of any permit, authority or registration that the Office had granted. The Office may also impose various penalties including cease and desist orders, condemnation or seizure of the products, administrative fines and award of damages. An example of this is a news incident reported last September 20,2011 wherein the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided one of the countrys top computer schools, AMA Computer College, and seized some P10 million worth of pirated software installed in its computer sets Tuesday in Makati City. September 20, 2011 Head Agent Rommel Vallejo, NBI-Intellectual Property Rights Division (NBI-IPRD) chief, told reporters that agents swooped down on AMAs branch at 5486 South Superhighway following the complaint of Autodesk Systems, Inc., distributors of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe CS2, Adobe Premier CS2, Adobe ReaderX, Adobe Premier Pro 2.0, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Autodesk Systems lawyers had complained that AMA was using pirated software. Armed with a search warrant, NBI agents raided Laboratory No. 3 and 4 at the second floor and Laboratory No. 5 at the third floor of the AMA Computer College branch and found 59 computer sets loaded with pirated software. The 59 computers with pirated software were seized and taken to the NBI headquarters on Taft Avenue, Manila.

2. Software Piracy affects the economic growth In 2009, more than four out of 10 software programs installed on personal computers around the world were stolen, with a commercial value of more than $51 billion. Unauthorized software can manifest in otherwise legal businesses that buy too few software licenses, or overt criminal enterprises that sell counterfeit copies of software programs at cut-rate prices, online or offline. The Straits Times newspaper in Singapore reported in May, 2010, that software piracy cost technology firms around the world more than $50 billion in 2009. Imagine $50 billion being use to generate more jobs that would be very beneficial it would generate 500,000 jobs worldwide The total worldwide piracy rate is 42 %. And the Philippines according to the BSA have a total piracy rate of 69%. The impact of software piracy goes beyond revenues lost to the software industry, starving local software distributors and service providers of spending that creates jobs and generates much-needed tax revenues for governments around the world.

Furthermore according to the Business Software Alliance reducing the piracy rate would benefit the world economy as they state:
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Reducing the piracy rate for PC software by 10 percentage points 2.5 points per year for four years would create $142 billion in new economic activity while adding nearly 500,000 new high-tech jobs and generating roughly $32 billion in new tax revenues by 2013. On average, more than 80 percent of the benefits of reducing PC software piracy accrue to local economies and in some cases it is more than 90 percent. Front-loading the gain by lowering piracy 10 points in the first two years of a four-year period would compound the economic benefits by 36 percent, producing $193 billion in new economic activity by 2013 and generating $43 billion in new tax revenues. Software has a ripple effect on the broader IT industry because selling, servicing and supporting software creates downstream economic activity. In the 42 countries covered in the study, the commercial value of unlicensed PC software put into the market amounted to $45 billion in 2009, resulting in total losses of revenue, employment and taxes from related sectors in excess of $110 billion.

3. Using pirated software is risky According to the research conducted by the IDC International Data Corporation last 2006 sponsored by Microsoft states that 25% of the Web sites we accessed offering counterfeit product keys, pirated software, key generators or crack tools attempted to install either malicious or potentially unwanted software. There are a significant number of sites that will attempt to install malicious or unwanted code. 11% of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from Web sites and 59% of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from peer-to-peer networks contained either malicious or potentially unwanted software. There is a significant amount of malicious or unwanted code to be found in key generators and crack tools. 25 of the 98 Web sites (25%) that we encountered hosted malicious or potentially unwanted software; at twothirds (17) of those we found multiple instances of such software. In some cases, the Web sites exploited vulnerabilities in an attempt to install the unwanted software automatically. In other cases, the user was required to take manual action, such as installing an ActiveX control. 116 files were downloaded from Web sites and 13 (11%) were found to contain malicious or potentially unwanted software. 94 files were downloaded from peer-topeer networks and 55 of these (59%) were found to contain malicious or potentially unwanted software. WHA T D O E S T H I S M EA N FOR YOU? The test results speak to the dangers of seeking and using pirated software. IDC.s security market analysts classify those risks into three types of threat: Infection from unwanted code running from mild to severe. On the mild side is annoying code, like adware, with its constant barrage of pop-up ads and potential home page hijacking. More destructive code, like Trojans, can potentially consume system resources until a device becomes inoperable. Finally there is potentially devastating code, like bots and key loggers, which can take over a machine to relay spam, store illegal files, or give third parties access to sensitive data.

Degradation of security protections malicious and unwanted software like that found in our tests has been known to prevent antivirus software and firewalls from running and/or receiving updates. Some adware even produces pop-up ads for counterfeit spyware removal tools sometimes asking the user to pay for software to clean the ads just created. Degradation of application performance security problems dont always present themselves as such. In many cases, the user simply notices a system problem and calls the IT department. Spyware is especially known to slow network performance or Internet access or to create log-in problems and remote access issues. Our research shows that even up-to-date systems running latest anti-malware software are vulnerable. New viruses, Trojans, worms, and spyware programs appear all the time. And how many users stay right on top of security updates or use the very latest anti malware tools? So with this reasons ladies and gentlemen of the house we on the Business Software Alliance strong condemn and oppose software piracy. Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a free software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often compared to (technically defined) usergenerated content or (legally defined) open content movements. Freeware (portmanteau of "free" and "software") is software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee,[1] but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the aim to expand the market share of a "premium" product. According to the FSF, "freeware" is a loosely defined category and it has no clear accepted definition, although FSF says it must be distinguished from free software (libre).[4] Popular examples of closed-source freeware include Adobe reader and Skype.