Free software is as attractive for a small business as a steak is to a hungry man. To a small business, software costs can get very expensive, very quickly. This very fact has lead software piracy to rise by 20 to 30% since the beginning of the pandemic. But I was raised being told that “nothing is free in life”. So what is the actual cost of pirated software and how do software pirates make their money?
The true cost of piracy
If you’ve ever considered pirating software in your business, you are not alone. 37% of the software on tested machines worldwide was unlicensed. Even big names got caught. In 2018, Nike was sued for over 15.6 million dollars for using pirated software. But other than the cost of being fought, what is the true cost of software piracy:
In 2015, $9.1B worth of unlicensed software was used. This is very important revenue for various smaller software developers who depend on all the revenue of every license to stay afloat and yet many countries still have unlicensed software rates of 50% or more.
Now, if you read the previous paragraph and still think “Why should I care, I’m not going to get caught!”, then the next sections are for you.
Pirating is not what it used to be
When money is at play, companies take action. And when billions of dollars are in question then major investments are made to get a piece of the pie. This is what happened to the software industry. Ever wondered why everything is a subscription now? Why do you get so many updates for every piece of software installed? Or, why does some software require you to be connected to the internet to use them? Well, you can thank, in big part, piracy.
When you release software regularly you force pirates to rework a piece of software regularly too. And when you also make changes to your digital rights management (DRM) code every time. It becomes impossible for pirates to catch up. On top of this, many software developers now use cryptographic methods in conjunction with an always-on internet connection to make software constantly pingback to the mothership and detect if any of the code of the software was altered. Essentially turning every software you install into an informer.
How do pirates make their money?
Software developers have been catching on to pirates. using the evermore advanced techniques to protect their software. And yet, some still manage to get through. But why would anyone use their time and advanced skills to pirate software just to distribute it on the web for free? Wouldn’t they want to be paid for their work?
Although, some hardcore anarchist pirate software as a cause for good (in their view). Most pirated software available online is made by organized groups of pirates who used pirated software as a trojan horse to distribute Malware, Spyware, Dataloggers, Bots, RATs (Remote administration tools) and so much more. sometimes all bundled into one pirated piece of software. This is where they make their revenue. They can sell access to your machine to be used as a BotNets which they rent to other hackers. They could crypt your data and ask for a ransom. Or they can sell the data they collected on your machine. such as Banking information, Credit Card information, Personal Identification details which all can be easily sold on the black market.
“I hope it’s clear from reading this post that downloading pirated software and software cracks are among the fastest and likeliest ways to infect yourcomputer with something that ultimately hands control of your PC to someone else…It is almost never safe to download executable programs from peer-to-peer file sharing networks because they are a major source of malware infections.”
To conclude; Software piracy costs software developers, It could potentially cost you way more than just the price of a single license and it could put your business severely at risk. It really isn’t worth it.
UpSystems is a full-service I.T. consulting company that offers all the I.T services you could need. Our mission is to help companies untangle the complex issues that always emerge during their digital evolution journey. Reach out today! The first consultation is always free.
