Software piracy is “the illegal copying, downloading, sharing, selling or installing of

copyrighted software (Karakaya and Ulutürk 60)”. Software piracy has been a serious

problem since the development of personal computers and various software packages to run

them and to work and play on them. Software piracy is unauthorized reproduction of

copyrighted software. The unauthorized copying can be done for different purposes such as

personal use, business use and even selling copies of the pirated software. Even though

pirating copyrighted software is illegal, there are still thousands of computer users pirating

copyrighted software in the Zimbabwe. The rates of operating system software piracy have

been increased rapidly with the growing use of computers.

The piracy of operating systems in Zimbabwe occurs in different forms and ways it includes

some of the following forms and reasons. The most common form as defined by Microsoft is

considered to be End User Piracy. It happens when individuals and businesses make copies of

operating system software without a license to do so. People may copy the operating system

and give it to others without realizing that this is software piracy. Similarly, an organization

may install the operating system software on more computers than its licenses allow. This can

be solved by coming with an act and enforcing the act that will make sure that people will not

pirate software and that they monitor the use of software being used by big the organisations.

Softlifting is the act of illegal copying of software and distributing it to friends, organisations

or duplication and resale in violation of the terms of the license agreement. Many personal

users and enterprises are doing it knowingly or unknowingly and only few of them care about

it. Such activities lead software industry to lose billions of dollars each year and shatter the

profitability of large software companies as well as small ones. It often happens when

organizations expand computer capabilities and install unauthorised copies, rather than going

through the purchasing procedure. Softlifting is sometimes referred to End User Piracy as in

both cases one copy of software is purchased for a particular machine and later installed on
several machines in violation of its copyright law. The government has to educate people on

the effects of piracy to the country . They should let people know that piracy is a serious

offence.

With the popularity of internet, piracy is one of the fastest and easiest ways to receive

pirated operating system software. There are several websites that make software available

for free download in a number of ways. Many computer users download software from the

internet, which makes their lives easy as they do not even need to visit stores or sending out

copies of software on a CD-ROM or flashy disk. These techniques have made our lives

easier but at the same time they have also increased internet piracy, which occurs in different

forms such as downloading or uploading of illegal copies of software such as operating

system over the internet. The government should sensor some websites so that those

websites that promote piracy will be blocked.

Software counterfeiting is illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted software in such a way

that it appears to be authentic. Counterfeit software includes accompanying manuals that the

original legitimate software was sold and is usually sold at prices well below that of the retail

price of the legitimate software. This is the most typical type of software piracy for

operating systems and different organizations are actively participating in stopping this kind

of activity. Though counterfeit operating systems software is cheap and easily available it is

also risky to use, since it can bring malware along with it. The government should enforce

laws that if a software vendor distributes Counterfeit software have its licence taken or face

some heavy penalties

The high price of operating system software that is not shareware and open source is another

factor causing operating system piracy. Countries with low economies like Zimbabwe have
higher piracy rates when the operating system software products are priced higher in

comparison with the developed countries. Software products developed in economically rich

countries are generally not affordable in poorer countries. The economy of any country has a

strong correlation with the piracy rates. According to a global study conducted by BSA in 33

countries as a part of the ninth annual BSA global soft-ware piracy study, piracy rate was

higher in developing countries than in the developed countries. The study found that

computer users in developing and poorer countries are unable to afford the higher priced

software products and they look for an alternate way to get them hence operating systems

pirated. To correct this the government should subsidise the prices of important software such

as the operating system

Several studies regarding software piracy have also shown that the piracy rate is mostly

higher in the Asian and African countries in comparison with the countries in the North

America and Western Europe. This is because computer users in North American and

Western European countries are aware of copyright rules and laws. Copyright laws are

strictly followed in these countries. For example in the US, if any business organization or

individual is found guilty in copyright infringement, they will be sentenced to jail terms of up

to 5 years along with $250,000 as fines. The same problem of not being aware applies on

Zimbabwean users hence the government should come up with awareness programs to

educate computer users in the country.

Social and cultural factors it has been found that there is a strong correlation between social

or cultural factors and software piracy. These factors refer to the prevailing social structure of

a country and the attitudes shared by the members of that society. Several previous studies

have shown that collectivist-individualist aspects of the society affect the piracy rate in any
country. For example, according to a study by Kallol, Peeter and Robert (2006), software

piracy is most popular in collectivistic societies where software is purchased by an individual

and is shared among other members of the society. To reduce piracy due to this the people

should be educated and know that it is also pirate.

In conclusion the problem of operating system software in Zimbabwe requires the

government to educate the users on the effects of piracy. The Government should also

subsidise the purchasing of the operating systems software mainly to the schools and colleges

since that is where there is high demand of the use of the operating systems in high

volumes. There should also be enforcement of laws that would discourage the piracy of all

software operating system.

REFERENCES
Business Software Alliance. The Compliance Gap [online]. June 2014.
URL:http://globalstudy.bsa.org/2013/downloads/studies/2013GlobalSurvey_Study_en.pdf.
Accessed 28 June 2014.

Kallol & Kirs, Peeter & Cerveny, Robert. (2006). Global software piracy: can economic
factors alone explain the trend?. Commun. ACM.

Karakaya M and Ulutürk B, ‘Individual and Social Reasons Behind Software Piracy: An
Analysis of Previous Studies (2011) 2 (2) International Journal of Security and Terrorism 59.
Software & Information Industry Association. What is Piracy? , Causes? And Solutions
[online]. URL: http://www.faithaca.org/SIIA.pdf. Accessed 01 March 2019.