Tech News

"South African software industry players are pushing for changes in legislation to help reduce piracy"

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/19277-Fighting-Piracy-with-the-law.html

Is there much of a point? The industry moves faster than law can keep up. Back in 2002 the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act came into being. Prior to the ECT act, there were virtually no laws governing many areas of the industry. But even by the time it came into being, there were already shortcomings/ loops.

So, are we ever going to beat the piracy... not easily.

One of the less vaunted characteristics of open source software, is that it can't be pirated, as nobody really "owns" it. Ok, it is kinda possible to include open source with proprietary software and possibly violating the licence, but it's not really the same as pirating a game. Businesses built around services as opposed to products do not suffer the losses due to pirated software.

Another emerging technology/ approach/ philosophy is cloud computing, or maybe just web based apps in general that make it impossible to pirate without infiltration the physical infrastructure.

An approach that seems to work for certain software is the augmented services offered by online subscription/ registration. For example, in certain console games, you can play online - without this feature, the game is severely limited. This acts as a some deterrent to using pirated software.

I seriously doubt that it'll ever be possible to get rid of pirated software without a combination of these factors. I'm certain that it's not going to disappear by just modifying the law.