What Is Software Piracy?

Software piracy, or theft, has become a major concern to software writers and manufacturers. For example, the software industry estimates that it lost an additional $2.4 billion of its total 1990 sales of $5.7 billion to software piracy. However, the act of piracy is not quite as dramatic as it sounds. In most cases it simply means illegally copying private domain software onto blank disks. Because most of the software-from games to sophisticated programs-is expensive, it's tempting to avoid buying an off-the-shelf package by accepting a friend's offer to supply free copies. But, according to the copyright Act of 1976, the software copyright Act of 1980, and the computer software piracy and counterfeiting Amendment of 1983, this practice is illegal. It is also unethical.
Computer programmers and software companies often spend years developing, writing ,testing, and marketing software programs-only to lose many royalty dollars to software "Pirate."
If you violate the license agreement you may find yourself confronted by the software Publishing Association (SPA) collected $3.2 million in fines front U.S. companies. It also filed 33 lawsuits, conducted 75 raids, and sent 561 warning letters. To help companies avoid illegal software copying.

Here is a good article about software piracy that you might find interesting:  Software Piracy