Can Software Piracy be Eliminated?

In recent news, the software giant Microsoft is suing a reseller because of the sale of pirated software. Piracy has always been one of the major problems since the inception of technology. It seems that this problem is being eliminated one lawsuit at a time. Although there are severe civil and criminal penalties, there are still many out there who are involved in this practice and call it a business.
This just goes to show that there are entrepreneurs who set business ethics aside in favor of the almighty buck. The internet is a very powerful tool especially for businesses and the fact that people use it to scam others leaves every Tom, Dick and Harry suspicious of internet-based businesses. Needless to say, this might be a bit problematic for software startup entrepreneurs.

The question is, can software piracy be completely eliminated and when would we see it done? According to Wikipedia, copyright infringement of software is common. Yes, there is a copyright law which in a nutshell means that all financial benefits would be given to the creator of the software and there are penalties should a person be found guilty of infringing copies of software. However, there are also many cases wherein a relatively innocent person can commit this crime. The simple sharing of backup copies of your software can already be deemed as copyright infringement. If you did not know that this can be the case, you’re still not off the hook because any claim of ignorance cannot be considered a defense.

There are numerous ways on how you can prevent software piracy like investing in code keys, usage of open source software, using a hardware key and of course, anti-piracy software. It is said that prevention is better than cure so in starting up your own internet business, it is vital that you put a premium to the security of your assets to stop and prevent software piracy.