A survey conducted by Business Software Alliance (BSA) in 2012 showed that approximately 57 percent of the computer users in the world confess to pirating a software. In this survey, the researchers asked the 15,000 participants from 33 different countries a simple question which was “How often do you acquire pirated software or software that is not fully licensed?
The results of this survey were 42 percent back in 2011 and the number showed a significant change within a year by rising to 57 percent. The current statistics show that China and The United States of America take the top two positions when it comes to being involved in software piracy. BSA’s global survey of 2016 revealed that the actual commercial value of unlicensed software is $9,095 million in the US whereas, in China, it is $8,675 million.
Avoid Breaking the Law
Despite such a tremendous impact of the pirated software industry, the users should avoid supporting them simply because they are breaking the law while doing so. In the United States, if someone is found using fake or pirated software, they are subjected to seven years of imprisonment or are forced to pay a fine of $250,000. In the UK, copyrights infringement can lead to £5,000 fine or six months in the prison.Relying on some authentic software coupons from CouponBuffer, users can save a significant sum of money by using the useful software and can avoid being involved in any legal matter.
Unhindered Customer Service
While using pirated software, the users do not have any access to any kind of customer service. Some software comes with certain complexities and it is not easy to learn to use them on your own. Thus, arises the need for customer service which is only available if you are using the authentic version. Additionally, the pirated software comes loaded with some of their own problems making the user experience even more complicated.
Security from Viruses
The pirated programs which you can get for free are loaded with viruses as they are not coming from any reliable source. Once they are installed on your computer, they can infect it with the virus and cause significant damage. Even if you have a pirated anti-virus, it will do more harm than good to your machine because the key is not genuine. Let alone protecting your PC from external viruses, it might be carrying some deadly ones itself.
Easy Access to Updates
The software manufacturers keep an eye on their products to find out possible bugs and other glitches. They keep working for the betterment of their products and highly recommend their users to turn on the updates and take advantage of the new and improved features. Not only these updates enable a faster but also a better experience with the respective software.
The software industry has lost a whopping $63.4 billion due to piracy with the most number of losses showing from Asia Pacific. While the lawmakers are still deciding how to curb this issue, the consumers, on the other hand, can take some vital steps in this regard. The authorities are implementing stricter measures to get rid of this illegal business and the users should be supporting them in it.
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