By ABIGALE M. ROTHSCHILD
College campuses tend to be havens for pirated software, said Nathan Gage, manager of Novell’s domestic anti-piracy program.
“There is a perception by some people that if they copy software it is no big deal. What they don’t realize is that somebody has lost some money when that happens,” Gage said.
Companies like Novell develop software which they sell to distributers who sell to resellers who sell to end users.
Resellers who are paying a legitimate price cannot compete with dishonest distributors, Gage said.
Enoch Chapman, 23, a former Novell employee, said a lot of classes require students to use specific software programs, and students don’t always have the money to buy those programs.
“With students it’s a lot easier to borrow other people’s products and copy them. Students don’t think they need to go out and buy it,” Chapman said.
Ruth Collett, secretary of the Computer Science Department, said computer labs carry all the software students need for their classes.
“We wouldn’t teach a class without providing tools for it,” Collett said.
Collett said software piracy is against the Honor Code.
“I think (software piracy) hurts the person who does it. I would hope it wouldn’t be a problem on campus,” Collett said.
The Computer Science Department teaches an ethics class which covers issues like software piracy.
Terrence Humphries, of Information Technology Services network security, said he didn’t know how many people on campus pirate software, and he said software piracy is a criminal act.
“(Piracy) is stealing another person’s intellectual property rights,” Humphries said.
