Social Implications of The Business of Piracy On Android Application (Term Paper Sample)

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE BUSINESS OF PIRACY ON ANDROID APPLICATION IN A MORE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL AGE
Piracy has always been the bane of any digital industry and in the age where people are engrossed on smartphones, it is inevitable that shadow of software piracy is there. According to Lending and Slaughter (1999), “Intellectual property is often the most valuable corporate asset in an increasingly information intensive economy” (253-260). It is still true, in fact more suitable today for not only did our technology improve but also our capability to track, monitor and gather information in user’s activity offline and online. One great example of this is the social network giant, Facebook, who approximately have 1 billion to 5 billion downloads on the facebook application recorded in Google play store alone. The previous statistic excluded downloads of facebook lite which approximately have 100 million downloads and the messenger application which have as much download as the facebook application (Google play store, 2017, n.p.). Also according to Facebook, they have 1.86 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2016 (n.p.). We market our ideas in forms of software, programs, algorithms which is susceptible to theft. According to PCmag, software piracy is defined as ‘’the illegal copying of software for distribution within the organization, or to friends, clubs and other groups, or for duplication and resale’’ (n.p.). Software piracy is rather a peculiar crime for it is the only theft that leaves the original copy behind. As a crime, the business of pirating software and efficiency of the laws to discourage and prevent people from doing it will definitely have an effect to the people involved especially during this increasingly advancing technological age.