''Indian hardware buyers think software's come free with hardware as programs come free with FM radio set''
- Adv. Prashant Mali [ President – Cyber Law Consulting ]

Software piracy is defined as unauthorized copying and use of Software without proper authorized license. Similarly, simultaneous use of single user license software by multiple users or loading of a single user license software at multiple sites, also amounts to software piracy. By buying a software, one only becomes a licensed user and not an owner. One can make copies of the program only for back-up purposes, but it is against the law to give copies to friends and colleagues or sell such copies to others. It is not possible to completely eliminate Software piracy, but the same can be controlled by enforcing the laws and generating an awareness in the society.

Any Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as, the right to reproduce or to make derivative works that build upon it. For electronic and audio-visual media, such unauthorized reproduction and distribution of a copyrighted work is often referred to as piracy (however there is no legal basis for the term 'piracy').
The society doesn't really treat software piracy like other kinds of theft as nothing is physically taken away. There is no immediate effect on the inventory or productive capacity of the programmer. Only copies of the disk or other storage medium are made and the legal owner is still in possession of the software. With digital technology, perfect copies of the original can be made in no time. Most often, the actual cost of creating goods is determined by the production cost of individual item. However with software, the reverse is true. The cost of producing copies is negligible compared to the cost of constructing the original. Hence it becomes very easy and all the more attractive to make copies of unauthorized software

Software Piracy Punishable under sections

120B r/w 420, 468, 471 of IPC, u/s 63, 63B of Copyright Act 1957, u/s 66, 85 of Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2000, u/s 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act 1988 and u/s 132 of Customs Act and substantive offences thereof can be made out against the suspects. The relevance of the above mentioned sections has to be decided based on the verification

Cyber Law Consulting helps you after a software piracy raid by police or nasscom or any other legal bodies, we help in police liasoning, we help you in getting software piracy compliance and in litigations. We also provide Expert opinion in software piracy court matters
We further guide you in framing your policies and best security practices.

Our core Experience in dealing with s/w companies across the world , police and other law and enforcement agencies can help you to get peace of mind in s/w piracy cases.