Motivation behind software piracy and its usage. Mostly the users of the low developed countries are practising software piracy for survival. This presentation reveals the reasons of it.

1. Motivations behind Software Piracy:
Relevance to Computer Ethics Theories
DR. SAPTARSHI GHOSH

2. Computer Ethics
• Computer Ethics is a study of ethical issues that are related mainly
with computing machines and computing profession. The features of
internet that, it is global and interactive, it allows users to stay
anonymous, and it enables reproducibility of information possible
unlike before makes the online behavior morally different. Computer
ethics studies the nature and social influence of computing machines
and ethical issues in formulating and justification of policies.
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3. Software Piracy
• Software Piracy, which is the unauthorized use or copying of software
illegally, has become a major problem for businesses and it is
widespread in many parts of the world which led to drain of economy.
As the access to use computer grows, the percentage for using
pirated software also grows. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and
the Software Publishers Association (SPA) made estimation (2010)
that there are two-ten illegal copies of software are available for
every legal copy of software sold.
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4. Ethical Issues
• According to Kizza, the role of ethics is to help societies distinguish
between right and wrong and to give each society a basis for
justifying the judgment of human actions. Thus the purpose of ethics
is to analyze the morality of human behaviors, policies, laws
and social structures. (Kizza, 2013)
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5. What constitutes Computer Ethics?
• Computer ethics is a field of applied ethics that addresses ethical
issues in the use, design, and management of information technology
and in the formulation of ethical policies for its regulation in the
society. (Brey & Søraker, 2009) Computer ethics analyzes the moral
responsibilities of computer professionals and computer users and
ethical issues in public policy for information technology development
and use. (Brey, 2007)
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6. Utilitarianism and Software Piracy
• Assessing software piracy from a utilitarian perspective gives very interesting and conflicting
ideas. As the focus here is on the results of the action than the action itself, arguments can be
made that an individual act of piracy is not unethical.
• In other words, it is possible to conclude that piracy results in the greatest good for the greatest
number, because many users get the benefit of the software at little or no cost, while only those
directly involved in producing it suffer any harm. The argument is strengthened when the cost of
the software in low-income countries is considered.
• As people could not afford the software at its regular price, the benefit seems especially great,
while the producers having more access to resources do not suffer a corresponding harm.
• Many people also cite the fact that much of software is overpriced, which probably makes it ok
to illegally copy it when users can.
• However, at the same time utilitarianism also suggests different conclusion. If the consideration is
extended to who benefits and who is harmed, the results are different. In this case, the question
to be asked is what good a person would derive by using something that belongs to someone else
without paying for it.
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7. Social Contract Theories
• Philosophers such as Rousseau, Locke, Hobbes, and more recently Rawls
are generally considered to be social contract theorists.
• Individuals are rational free agents and hence it is immoral to exert undue
power over them. At the same time government and society treat
individuals as means to social good, and hence are problematic
institutions.
• Social contract theories explain this problem by claiming that morality is
the outcome of rational agents agreeing to social rules, hence the name
social contract.
• Individuals essentially freely agree to follow rules set by the government
and the society, meaning that they are not coerced but freely choose to
participate in the activity. Shared morality is what rational individuals agree
as a group in order to make a social contract. (Johnson & Miller, 2004).
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8. THEORIES OF COMPUTER ETHICS
Weiner’s theoretical underpinning on computer ethics:
• MIT Professor Norbert Wiener argued:
All the process and objects in the universe comprise of matter/energy and
information (Bynum, 2010)
•
All animals are information-processing beings whose behavior depends of
their processing and reasoning capabilities (Bynum, 2010)
•
Humans, unlike other animals, have bodies that make the information
processing in their central nervous system especially sophisticated.
(Bynum, 2010)
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9. Prescriptions by Weiner
• Each human being in the society must be liberated enough to have
the freedom to explore his full extent of abilities, also known as the
principle of freedom (Bynum, 2010)
• The social policies should be equal to everyone living within the
community, also known as the principle of equality (Bynum, 2010)
• The actual goodwill existing between people of the society has no
limits short of those of humanity itself, also known as the principle of
benevolence (Bynum, 2010)
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10. Luciano Floridi’s information ethics
• Information ethics was defined by Luciano Floridi and his colleagues including Jeff
Sanders, who took a radical perspective on computer ethics, taking in account the
nature of computing a well as the presence of human and software agents in
digital environments.
1. The null law which states that entropy should not be cause in the infosphere at
all.
2. Entropy should be prevented from occurring or increasing in the infosphere.
3. Entropy should be removed from the infosphere, if possible
4. The growth and development of all informational objects in the infosphere
should be done in a way that preserves, cultivates and enriches their properties.
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11. Temptations offered by computerization
• Speed
• Privacy and anonymity
• Nature of medium
• Aesthetic attraction
• Increased availability of potential victims
• International scope
• The power to destroy
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12. FACTORS INFLUENCING SOFTWARE PIRACY
• Public Awareness
• High software prices
• Risk of Penalty
• Opportunity
• Equity Theory
• Demographic Variables
• Previous Behaviour
• Moral and social factors
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13. Religion and Computing
• Religion — «Kopimism» — Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V - Missionary Church of
Kopimism
• Kopimism is a religious group centered in Sweden who believe that
copying and the sharing of information is the best and most
beautiful that is. To have your information copied is a token of
appreciation, that someone think you have done something good.
• Isak Gerson: "I'm not the Kopimist Jesus“:
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14. Religion and Computing
• This line of faith is called Kopimism (which originates from the Swedish
pirate term "kopimi," a play on the words “copy me”) and worships the
holy act of copying and spreading information.
• They do not only consider it to be the meaning of life–growing by copying
and spreading knowledge and information–but also its origin, since life
began with the DNA molecule's ability to duplicate itself.
• Kopimism’s religious symbols are CTRL+C and CTRL+V. Their gospel is
spreading fast. Having been around for merely a year, the religion already
counts 4,000 members, and its Swedish mother site has already been
copied everywhere from Russia and Canada, to France and Romania. The
crusade has begun and it looks like Sweden can now enjoy the possibility of
jumping from being one of the least to being one of the most religious
countries in the world.
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15. Missionary church of Kopimism
http://kopimistsamfundet.se/english/
• A religion is a belief system with rituals. The missionary
kopimistsamfundet is a religious group centered in Sweden who
believe that copying and the sharing of information is the best and
most beautiful that is. To have your information copied is a token of
appreciation, that someone think you have done something good.
• * All knowledge to all
• * The search for knowledge is sacred
• * The circulation of knowledge is sacred
• * The act of copying is sacred.
We challenge all copyright believers – most
of which have a great deal of influence in
politics, and who derive their power by
limiting people’s lives and freedom. What
they most of all want to limit the
knowledge. We need to steel ourselves for
their hatred and aggression.
– Copy. download, uplooad!
– All knowlegde to all!
– Information technology is not to be
feathered by laws.
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16. Online Software Piracy Act
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17. References
• Adams, A. A., & McCrindle, R. (2008). Pandora's Box: Social and Professional Issues of the
Information Age. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Arslan, E. (2006). The Repercussions of Software Piracy: Damages, Approaches of Control, and
Benefits from Reducing Piracy Rates. University of Sunderland. GRIN Verlag.
Baldwin, T. (1999). G.E. Moore: The Arguments of the Philosophers. New York: Routledge.
Brey, P., & Søraker, J. H. (2009). Philosophy of Computing and Information Technology. In D.
M. Gabbay, A. Meijers, & J. Woods, Philosophy of Technology and Engineering
Sciences, Volume 9 (pp. 1341-1408). Oxford: Elsevier.
Briggle, A., & Mitcham, C. (2012). Ethics and Science: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Brooks, L. J., & Dunn, P. (2011). Business & Professional Ethics, 6th edition. Cengage Learning.
Business Software Alliance. (2010). Global Software Piracy 2010. Retrieved from Business
Software Alliance Web site: http://globalstudy.bsa.org/2010/
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