2. Software piracy

To many people software piracy is a matter of 'innocently' sharing software amongst friends and they can't really see anything wrong with it.

In fact, there is nothing "innocent" or acceptable about it. It is against the law.

Deliberate counterfeiting is a serious problem.  Ten years ago, most copying was done on a small scale, usually amongst friends or work colleagues.  Now, it accounts for nearly 40% of all software in existence.

Software piracy in the workplace has also become far more common.  Piracy can be as simple as two employees installing the same program on their computers when the license agreement only allows one. It can be as widespread as the deliberate, systematic copying of programs throughout an organization. 

The Internet has also made it much easier to steal, market and distribute copyrighted material. 

Pirated software on the Internet is often shared via bulletin boards, e-mail, news groups, site links and Internet auction sites.