Online Software Piracy and Its Related Laws

Abstract

Software has become an integral part of our life when everything in our life is connected with the digital world. Being a valuable technology in the internet age, software has also contributed for the development of economy as well. It has created large number of job across the globe and a boom in the economy is the result. India has become one of the biggest exporter of software in the world. But across the world, all the countries with huge software developing markets are facing a major threat: threat of Piracy. Software Piracy is the reproduction, distribution or use of a software without the expressed permission of its author. Software piracy had large implication upon the Information Technology industries and it has also shaken the economy. Though software piracy has been detected and various measures are adopted by the authorities, still the instances of software piracy has only lessened a little. In this scenario, the objective of this research paper is to understand the concept of software piracy, Issues and Challenges, and also to analyses the existing legal framework such as Information Technology Act, 2000, Copyright Act, 1957 and other related law if any. The paper critically studies the existing legal framework to find out the lacunas in the system and to come up with suggestions to tackle the menace of software piracy.