Intellectual Property Piracy

Intellectual Intellectual property is under attack by pirates. These pirates are not wearing an eye patch or sporting a peg leg, they are anybody and everybody who are selling or copying software for personal or business use. When it comes to software and online piracy, in certain countries, it is like the Wild West, there are laws that are very cut and dry but it seems like nobody follows them. On the other hand there are certain countries where it almost seems like anything goes with a lack of government regulation. The United States has very strict laws about copyright infringement. If a person is found guilty of copyright infringement in the US, it is considered a felony charge which carries a heavy fine as well as possible jail time. In December 2011, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of "notorious markets," or markets that "typify the problem of marketplaces that deal in goods and services that infringe on IPR and help to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting," according to a USTR press release(China Urges US, 2012). Along with strict enforcement of anti-piracy laws, countries of North America, Western Europe and Australia tend to follow the Rule of Law in which society validates laws and codes. There are many associations emerging to fight technology piracy to ensure intellectual property rights. Such organization such as WTO (World Trade Organization), WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), and the WCT (World Copyright Treaty) have been created to police the piracy of intellectual property. With these organizations, intellectual piracy had seen a decline for a short amount of time. In a study in 2009, it was found that of all software found in developed countries, 80% of the software was legitimately purchased. On the other hand, it was also found that in emerging countries, about 60% of software was found to be pirated. Those emerging countries account for 45% of the global