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Ways You Might Be Breaking the Law (With Your Tech)

by Sean Captain on May 1, 2009 at 02:00 PM



13. Pirating Software

Even if you walk into a store and pay cash money for a disc, you're not really buying the software. You're buying a license to use it under specific terms. That most likely rules out selling copies to other people. As with drugs, the big penalties for software piracy fall on the dealers--up to $250,000 in fines and five years in prison for selling copies, or even giving away large quantities (that's in the U.S. -- in places like Malaysia and SIngapore, the penalty is death). But don't fret too much: A business that uses many copies of illegal software could also end up paying hefty fines, but an individual with a bootleg of Photoshop is (usually) too small to register on the enforcement radar.

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