New technology could help squelch digital music piracy

A group of technology companies is creating a set of industry standards that could help put digital piracy protections directly into portable disk drives as soon as this summer.

The plans are initially likely to affect removable data storage, such as Zip drives or the Flash memory cards used in MP3 players. But the standards could ultimately serve as a way to keep consumers from copying copyrighted files directly onto their hard drives, a daunting prospect for those who download music or videos from the Net though programs such as Napster or Gnutella.
Any hardware device that limits what consumers can do with their music or video files will face steep hurdles before being adopted. Previous devices with built-in copy protection have reached the market only to disappear under the weight of consumer indifference.

Current efforts are coming in two parts. An industry body that oversees hardware technologies is creating the new set of standards designed to let individual manufacturers add their own copy-protection schemes. Waiting in the wings to take advantage of the standards body's proposal is a specific technology jointly created by Intel, IBM, Matsushita Electric and Toshiba, dubbed Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM).
At least two big computer companies, IBM and SanDisk, are considering implementing CPRM, according to developers. If adopted widely, it and other hardware-based copy protection ideas stand a chance of easing fears among record labels and movie studios about selling content online.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-250340.html

As we can see day by day the new technology is developing by new tools, and these new tool could be used in different ways. In this content the new technology helps digital piracy protection into portable disk drives. This thing is using for keeping consumer consumers from copying copyrighted files directly onto their hard drives, a daunting prospect for those who download music or videos from the Net though programs such as Napster or Gnutella. This is what we call it positive use from technology to help copyright and overcome the other side that provide easy way to copy things into flash memory cards, pen drives and so on. Also by this way any individual manufacturer can design its own protection schem.

Online music piracy 'destroys local music'

Countries like Spain run the risk of becoming "cultural deserts" because of online file-sharing, the music industry has claimed.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) says that global government legislation is essential to the sector's survival.
It cited Spain as an example of a country which does not have laws in place to prevent illegal downloads.
The sales of albums by local artists there have fallen by 65% in five years.
Federation chairman John Kennedy said the situation in Spain is now "almost irreversible".
Spain runs the risk of turning into a cultural desert," commented Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, at Universal Music Group.
Drastic action needs to be taken in order to save the Spanish music industry."
In a market that is "rigged by piracy" it is non-English language music which suffers the most when the music industry tightens its belt added Mr Kennedy.

This is because global stars such as Lady Gaga, who topped the digital download chart of 2009 with 9.8m downloads for her single Poker Face, are regarded as more secure investments

I think, that Music Piracy is wrong, but the question is who is wrong?. Is customer supposed to pay seversl times the logical price to be a legitimate buyer?. Music industry is to be questioned for how they justify the price of digital music sold on the net.
Networks such as internet always help industries to introduce their product better to customer and better support. This useful and efficient tool sometimes in some industries cause some bad things to happen one these industries is music industry and the bad thing which is threaten this industry is sharing music through internet by friends. It causes so many lost for producers because of this unlawful music sharing throughout the net. As it mentioned in case lots of local music produces get lost by this sharing through internet. It is better for all people to have better understanding to use such a network. May this unlawful usage damage the art and artistic music? It’s better to prevent this thing happen even protect damage!

Why is software piracy an important issue?

Piracy is not just a concern for software publishers; it also affects consumers and the economy as a whole. Both the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimate that up to 40 percent of installed business software worldwide, and 23 percent in the U.S., is illegally copied. Software theft and its related effects -- including lost jobs, wages and tax revenues -- totaled an estimated $8.7 billion in the U.S. in 2002.

Although piracy has a negative effect on software industry and also economy in global basis it has some negative effect as well.
Other negative effects of piracy:

•Virus threats - When users install software from counterfeit CDs, they expose themselves to risks that such CDs might also contain other material, including potentially destructive material like computer viruses. Obviously there are no quality control guarantees when buying and using counterfeit CDs.
•Impact on research and development - Piracy undermines software companies' ability to invest in research and development, slowing the industry's ability to bring new and innovative solutions to consumers.
•Identity theft risks - Piracy can expose end-users to potential risks of identity theft if criminals who sell counterfeit software CDs obtain a buyer's name, address, credit card and other information during purchase.
•Support and maintenance - Piracy deprives consumers of the basic protections offered by properly licensed software like money-back guarantees, installation support, maintenance releases, and upgrade rebates.

http://about.intuit.com/piracy/

The high price of piracy

Cutting software piracy can boost economies and create jobs.
Countries in Western Europe could create a million jobs and boost the value of their technology sectors by £250 billion if they cut piracy rates by ten points by 2006, claims a study.
The research, carried out for the BSA anti-piracy group, revealed that piracy is stunting the growth of software firms worldwide.
The BSA (Business Software Alliance) estimates that almost 40% of all software being used around the world is pirated.

Hidden cost
The research looked at the effects of piracy in countries that together account for 98% of the world's technology economy.
The study was drawn up by analyst firm IDC and found that countries enforcing anti-piracy laws tend to have larger and more creative technology sectors.
"Strong intellectual property protections spur creativity, which opens new opportunities for businesses, governments and workers," said Beth Scott, European vice-president of the BSA.
Countries could boost the size of their software sectors by doing a better job of stopping people making counterfeit copies of commercial software and catching pirates, said the report.
The report put a value on Britain's technology sector, which includes software and hardware makers as well as associated services, of £37.5bn but said this could grow to £54.4bn by 2007 if piracy rates were slashed to 15% from their currently 25% rate.
The growth of the technology industry would contribute £10bn to the growth of the UK economy as a whole, add £2.5bn to tax revenues and create up to 40,000 jobs.
France's tech sector could grow by 50% in four years if it too managed to cut ten points off its current 46% rate of piracy.
Cutting piracy by ten points globally could add 1% to world economic growth.
The report authors said such cuts in piracy were feasible because almost two-thirds of the 57 countries covered in the study had already managed to reduce piracy by ten points since 1996.

I’m confident, the rate of software piracy is rising around the world. The increase in piracy is due largely to higher PC shipments and sales, especially in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and China is one of the biggest markets for pirated software. I believe software piracy doesn't just take profits away from the industry but also has a potential effect on the economy. In fact, piracy means lost revenue, Obviously, Software theft hurts not just software companies, but also the broader economy at the local, regional, and also global levels by cutting out service and distribution firms. I think in order to prevent piracy Software companies should offer extra value and services to users of legal software and restrict those from people who use unlicensed products.

Piracy problems stain Windows XP

Microsoft's plans to stop people pirating the next version of Windows have suffered a setback. A German computer magazine has found weaknesses in the piracy protection system built into Windows XP.
The weaknesses could mean that in up to 90% of cases users can circumvent the copy protection system. But Microsoft said that the protection system would be much stronger and harder to defeat when the final version of XP is released later this year.

Component count
In a bid to combat piracy Microsoft is introducing a product activation system into the XP versions of its software. Activating a product involves contacting Microsoft for an identification number that is then combined with the serial numbers of the components inside your computer to create a unique identifier.
Big changes to the hardware in a machine could mean that users have to contact Microsoft for a new identification number to re-activate their software.
By tying software to individual machines Microsoft hopes to stop its products being run on more machines than they are licensed for.
But now German computer magazine Tec Channel has analysed the product activation system that is being used in the test, or beta, versions of Windows XP and found that, in many cases, it can be compromised by making simple changes.

File fiddling
When Windows XP is first installed and activated it generates a file called wpa.dbl that stores information about the configuration of your machine.
Changes to any one of the ten components or serial numbers that this file watches are logged. When three changes have been made the wpa.dbl file is deleted forcing the user to contact Microsoft to reactivate the software.
But Mike Hartmann, a journalist at Tec Channel, has found that the ability of the wpa file to spot piracy can be easily compromised.
In tests Mr Hartmann installed and activated XP, then saved a version of the wpa file that was generated. He then changed components on the test machine so XP had to be re-activated. However, copying the old version of the wpa file back in the Windows system directory stopped requests for reactivation.

Piracy problems
The activation was also compromised when XP was fooled into thinking that a desktop PC was a laptop in a docking station, rather than a self-contained machine. In this configuration some components that wpa watches would be in the docking station rather than the portable computer. XP dutifully ignored any changes made to these components.
In total Mr Hartmann found a way to make the Windows XP activation technology ignore six of the ten components that it monitors. Mr Hartmann said another two can vary in only a small number of ways among all machines making it possible to create a "universal" wpa file that should activate XP on most PCs.
"With some smart tools that do automatic matching of hardware and activation-files it would be possible to 'activate' nearly 90 percent of home-user machines without Microsoft knowing anything about it," Mr Hartmann told BBC News Online.
Mr Hartmann expects to see activation file sites springing up on the web that offer wpa files tied to PCs with particular configurations thus ruining Microsoft's chances of cutting piracy.
"Should Microsoft stick with current version of wpa they will have wasted lots of money for call-center-employees, webservers and the technology itself," he said.
But a spokeswoman for Microsoft said that the version of the activation system that is in the pre-release versions of Windows XP is weaker than that which will ship with the finished version.
"The things that have been highlighted as a way of potentially bypassing activation will not be in the final code," said the spokeswoman. "The final code is going to be very different to what we have now."
"Product activation is not completely fixed in place at this time," she added

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1448869.stm

Companies are always wanted to find new ways to prevent piracy. Microsoft is one of these companies, this time by introducing XP version is trying to overcome previous defect which was security problem. This new version has this security system; Activating a product involves contacting Microsoft for an identification number that is then combined with the serial numbers of the components inside your computer to create a unique identifier. Also this security system is so strong and unreachable for hackers but still there is some problem for XP activation the problem can be seen in the uploaded video the thing is 'activate' nearly 90 percent of home-user machines without Microsoft knowing anything about it," Mr Hartmann told BBC News Online.

Software piracy on the wane

According to figures collected by the Business Software Alliance, global piracy rates declined last year to 39%. But the lost revenue this represents to firms making the software being pirated rose 19% to more than $13bn.
The UK bucked global trends as its businesses used slightly more pirated software than in previous years.

Stealing software
North America and Western Europe have the lowest global piracy rates. Only 24% of business software in the US is pirated compared to 35% in Europe. But for the first time in seven years the number of UK firms using pirated software has risen.
Figures gathered by anti-piracy group the Business Software Alliance show that 26% of the software used in the UK companies is pirated. Last year the figure was 25%.

GLOBAL PIRACY RATES
The BSA put the rise down to companies trying to cut costs as the hi-tech slowdown bites.
"There may possibly be an issue with the current economic recession with some people under-licencing to make precious IT budgets go further," said Richard Saunders, former chairman of the BSA.
He said that the growth of broadband net access was also making it easier to download stolen software. The rise in the UK is set against a broader background of falling piracy rates around the world. The Middle East/Africa has shown the most significant reduction in the amount of pirated software.
In 1994 when the BSA began measuring piracy rates, eight out of every 10 business software packages in Middle Eastern and African nations were pirated. Now the rate is 49%.
This region is also home to the nation showing the greatest fall in piracy rates. The United Arab Emirates has trimmed piracy to only 36% in 2002 from 86% in 1994.

Ups and downs
Scandals like Enron might make firms wary of breaking the law
According to the BSA figures, the second most improved region was Latin America which saw its piracy rates drop 23 points to 55% between 1994 and 2002.
In Latin America, Guatemala seems to be doing the best job of combating piracy as it saw a 33 point drop in piracy over the last seven years to 61%.
The amount of business software pirated in Asian and Pacific Rim nations is dropping too with some countries, such as Japan, recording a huge drop, 66 points, in piracy rates.
But some nations in the region, such as China and Vietnam, remain black spots with piracy rates in excess of 92%.

Hollywood faces piracy battle

New technology threatens to bring the film industry the same copyright problems as the music industry, Hollywood's biggest studios have warned.
The head of the Motion Picture Assocoiation of America, which represents the studios, told the ShoWest trade convention an increasing number of films are being downloaded from the internet each day.
MPAA Chief Executive Jack Valenti told the Las Vegas gathering: "Some 270,000 movies are illegitimately downloaded every day.
"By the end of this year it is estimated that a million films will be pirated each day by otherwise rationally-minded Americans who ought to know that creative works are private property."
The major studios are all experimenting with pay-per-view technology which uses the internet to bring films direct to the home.
The MPAA has been active in attacking piracy and campaigning for stronger copyright protection for the US film industry.
It has taken legal action against software providers offering utilities that break copyright-protecting codes in DVD discs and in July 2000 took a joint action with record industry groups against Scour.com, an internet-based service which enabled users to search for both music and film files.

One of the most important points which are existed in this paper is the numbers and figures this number shows that 270,000 movies are illegitimately downloaded every day. Hollywood is one the greatest victim of piracy. This is happening while some studios are sharing movies by their clients through net. By this way the movies which are received by clients could be shared easily by each other, the affects of this illegal sharing is so harmful for movie industry specially Hollywood. New technology and also net although can provide so many facilities and benefit, sometimes causes so much lost for both side which are producer and even user.

China 'flooded' with pirate Windows XP

Pirated versions of Microsoft's Windows XP computer operating system have flooded Beijing's computer market, the local press reported, just days before its official launch in China.
Copies of Microsoft's latest product labelled "officially copyrighted" were freely available at the Zhongguancun computer market for about 30 yuan (£2.45; $3.60), the Beijing Evening News said.
Microsoft will launch a "simplified Chinese" version of Windows XP on Thursday with a price tag of 1,498 yuan (£123; $180).
Microsoft officials warned that the pirated versions were of sample versions and their use could cause damage to computers, the report said.
A number of a software manufacturers were also using the XP brand, with products called "Oriental Dadian XP" and "Jingying 315XP", to promote their sales, it said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1637685.stm

I think, Pirated software hurts everyone from software developers to retail store owners, and also to all software users. And also illegal duplication and distribution of software has a significant impact on the economy. So the best way to avoid wasting time and money is purchasing from known and trusted source. in fact this is a best way to help stop this illegal activity and maybe the true way to protect the legal software and other intellectual property.

How cyber piracy affects you

"Copying software is so easy, of course I've done it," says Matthew, a London-based IT specialist. "That was in my undergraduate years - I didn't know anyone who bought the stuff legitimately.
"Someone would turn up and say 'give this a crack, it's the latest version' and it'd get passed around until it was obsolete. It was mostly office and spreadsheet programs, the kind of stuff you can download from the web now."
After graduation, Matthew used a mix of licensed and copied software until 1998. "On holiday in Malaysia, I bought a copy of Microsoft's FrontPage from a guy at a dodgy market stall. For months it worked fine, but it turned out to be laced with the Chernobyl virus - it cost £600 to repair the damage."
His fingers well and truly burned - and his spending power far greater than in his student years - Matthew now only uses licensed software. "Not only do they work properly, I get all the technical support and upgrades I need.
"I think Microsoft and other big firms benefited from that early piracy by my generation. Yes we saved money, but we became much more computer literate and so are now regular customers. I bought a photo editing program last year - I wouldn't have been interested if I hadn't tried out a bootleg copy years ago."

Cyber Pirating: A 12.5 Billion Dollar Economic Loss62

Statistics of Piracy From Music (from the RIAA):

•Piracy of music causes 12.5 billion dollars economic loss
•Jobs lost from piracy of music: 71,060
•2.7 billion dollars in wages lost (again from just music piracy)
•422 million dollars lost in tax revenue
•131 million dollars lost in corporate earnings

Statistics Piracy of Movies (from the MPAA):

•Movie piracy costs our economy 18.2 billion dollars a year
•141,030 jobs have been lost
•837 billion dollars of tax revenue is lost each year
•20.5 billion dollars of movie earnings is lost

What is Game Piracy?

Game piracy is an activity in which people make and distribute copies of a computer or console game without authorization from the game's developer and owner of the game's copyright. Estimates about the rate of game piracy vary, with some companies claiming rates as high as 90%, while others have more conservative numbers. Concerns about game piracy have led companies to use a variety of techniques to attempt to subvert piracy, ranging from making versions of their products available for free to having complex processes to validate their products when people use them.
People commit game piracy for a number of reasons. Some people do it for profit, purchasing legitimate versions of games for the purpose of copying and selling them. Some game pirates sell hard drives or discs loaded with numerous games, so that people can purchase a large package of pirated games. Other people copy and distribute games for friends so that they can save money, or because they do not realize that what they are doing is considered piracy. For example, if a game allows people to have five copies installed and someone passes copies to four friends and they in turn pass it on, the original purchaser would have been contributing to game piracy by handing out the legitimate versions.
www.wisegeek.com/what-is-game-piracy.htm

I’m confident, there is nothing positive about piracy and it has huge damage to the game market, copying a game is a cheaper than buying it because the copier is making no contribution to the cost of making the game in the first place.
so,obviously, the main effect of piracy on the game industry is that software companies have to raise their prices it because these Companies have used techniques like providing automatic updates in order to protect their product.