Software Licensing
...software industry, with a loss of $2.2 billion in the United States
alone. Estimates show that over 40 percent of U.S. software company revenues are
generated overseas, yet nearly 85 percent of the software industry's piracy losses
occurred outside of the United States borders. The Software Publishers Association
indicated that approximately 35 percent of the business software in the United States
was obtained illegally, which 30 percent of the piracy occurs in corporate settings.
In a corporate setting or business, every computer must have its own set of original
software and the appropriate number of manuals. It is illegal for a corporation or
business to purchase a single set of original software and then load that software onto
more than one computer, or lend, copy or distribute software for any reason without the
prior written consent of the software manufacturer. Many software managers are
concerned with the legal compliance, along with asset management and costs at their
organizations. Many firms involve their legal departments and human resources in
regards to software distribution and licensing.
Information can qualify to be property in two ways; patent law and copyright
laws which are creations of federal statutes, pursuant to Constitutional grant of
legislative authority. In order for the government to prosecute the unauthorized
copying of computerized information as theft, it must first rely on other theories of
information-as-property. Trade secret laws are created by state law, and most
jurisdictions have laws that criminalize the violations of a trade-secret holder=s
rights in the secret. The definition of a trade secret varies somewhat from state to
state, but commonly have the same elements. For example, AThe information must be
secret, Anot of public knowledge or of general...
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