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piracy.esy
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1992-04-13
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207 lines
The Copyright Act
Recently, The Toronto Star
published an article entitled RCMP
seizes BBS, piracy charges pending.
The RCMP have possessed all
computer components belonging to
the "90 North" bulletin board system
in Montreal, Quebec. The board is
accused of allowing end-users the
opportunity to download (get)
commercial and beta (not marketed,
test) software.
After a four month
investigation, the RCMP seized ten
micro-computers and seven modems.
In addition, they found software
applications of major corporations
valued at a sum of approximately
$25,00.00 (It is estimated that
$200 million dollars are lost in
revenues from software piracy,
according to the Canadian Alliance
Against Software Theft {CANST}).
For a fee of $49/year, the user was
enabled to download such software
as WordPerfect, Microsoft DOS,
Windows, Lotus, Borland C++, dBase
IV, and IBM LAN which are all
copyrighted by The Canadian
Copyright Act. The RCMP acted in
response to concern from the users
who stated that they were not sure
whether this software could be dis-
tributed electronically.
Yves Roy, sergeant of RCMP
stated that charges will be laid in
early December under paragraph 42
of The Copyright Act. Conviction
under this act carriers a maximum
punishment of a fine of $1 million
dollars, and/or 5 years
imprisonment.
Because newspaper articles
are very biased in one point-of-
view, it is difficult to look at both
sides of this situation. But let us
discuss piracy in a more general
manner. Software piracy is the act
in which someone takes a
copyrighted portion or whole of
software, then electronically
copies and/or distributes it, with
or without modification of any sort,
to other to people or organizations
with financial or otherwise
charge/trade and lacking authority
or permission from the company or
person in which the software is
copyrighted by.
According to the article, the
"90 North" BBS satisfies the
software piracy definition and is
therefore guilty of the act. The
BBS is further liable if the
software companies decide to file
law suites against them. This is all
fairly evident, but we need to ask
ourselves whether The Copyright
Act and its punishments are fair for
modern society. To answer this
question, we need to look at piracy
and how it affects the world as a
whole.
One may wonder how "90 North"
makes its money. Just to stay at a
break even point, it needs 2,500
members! The answer is that the BBS
does not buy the software from
retailers. It buys the software
from "pirate/cracking groups" such
as The Humble Guys (THG),
International Network of Crackers
(INC), National Elite Underground Al-
liance (NEUA), Software Exchange
(SEX), Public Enemy (PE), etc. (most of
the groups are deal in the U.S. only).
But how do these organizations get
their software?
From various places around
the world such as Europe, the
pirate groups pay people who work
in software companies to send them
commercial or beta software. Then
the pirate groups hire "crackers"
(people who alter the program's
code) to un-copy-protect the
software. Once this is done, the
pirate groups ask various U.S. BBS's
to pay them for this un-
copy-protected software. Then, as
you already know, the BBS asks the
end-user for an annual fee to have
access to the BBS. So, for an in-
dividual to risk his job for a fast
buck, many people are able to get
software at much of a discount.
Canadians, however, are far
luckier thaan the United States.
Canadian pirate BBS's have a policy
"you get as much as you give" (at
various ratios), meaning that the
amount of software you give to the
board, is the amount of software (in
bytes) you may receive; and no fee
is required. As software gets
bumped from one BBS to another in
the states, it eventually makes it
way up into Canada, where BBS users
have the opportunity to get
commercial software simply by
giving the board other software.
So what does all this activity
tell us? This tells us the people
are willing to go to great lengths to
get software at a lower cost, or
possibly in exchange for other
software and are succeeding in
their efforts. Although more than
50% of their income is from other
companies which do not pirate, this
posses a problem for the software
industries. By fining a single
bulletin board out of the thousands
in North America, there would be
little accomplished. Not to mention
the fact the it is extremely
difficult to prove and convict
people under the copyright act.
This is how the scene looked
in 1980 - posing a huge problem of
business and the industry. The
picture is much different now. What
did companies do to overcome the
problem (The Copyright Act didn't
help too much!)? Businesses made
programs such that one would
require a manual, product support,
other reference material, etc. So,
now when somebody "illegally copies"
an application, they need this extra
material in order to use the
software efficiently and
effectively. There are still some
quirks, as someone could photocopy
a manual (though fewer people would
spend the extra time and money).
But nevertheless, the software
companies have had success in
slowing down the software piracy
process.
In today's society, software
is at far the least income source
for corporations such as
WordPerfect Corp. They make their
money from individuals purchasing
extra manuals, reference material,
suplementary hardware, and calling
product support. Software
companies are contious of the
pirate world and the changes they
have made. Some companies actually
want you to take the software. With
the SHAREWARE concept, one
evaluates the software, and then
gives pay if s/he feels it is a
worthy product. Companies are, of
course, satisfied with the current
conditions. Most of the companies
are still in business, and still
bringing up more technological
advancements. The companies, in
one sense, have outsmartened and
beaten the pirates.
From BBS's, users have to
opportunity to view software and
evaluate it before they pay the
high cost of the extras.
Programmers also have the
opportunity to view other works and
learn from the advancements, or
find the errors in the beta (or
commercial) versions.
Like all laws, The Canadian
Copyright Act needs to be modified
with the changing society. The act
as of now is having little effect.
The Copyright Act needs to be
changed so it reflects, without
disortion, the views of individuals
and corporations. A law is made to
keep order, and if it doesn't do
that, then certainly it needs
modification.