ALL SOFTWARE SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FREE OF CHARGE TO ALL USERS

All Software Should Be Available For Download Free Of Charge to All Users

All Software Should Be Available For Download Free Of Charge to All Users

Thesis Statement

All software should be freely available for downloading to all users. The expensive price tags of software persuade people towards software piracy and also prevails the monopoly of big software houses in the market.

Introduction

Internet piracy, crack versions of expensive software or "file sharing" of copyrighted material, in recent years has attained much fame. It is a subject that has constantly ignited discussion and global attention has been even received by it. Even though, the act of file sharing apparently may give the impression of being harmless, it is far-flung from it. Companies developing software and video game put up with from billions of dollars in lost profits, each year. As a direct result of internet piracy and stealing of software, this loss comes. It is agreed by many people that stealing of software is unethical and think it to be no dissimilar than categorical pilfering. Conversely, there are many other people too who prop up cracking of software and argue that their acts are simply defensible and ethical. One of the ways to overcome this issue is the free availability of software for downloading and declination of any proprietorship or ownership with software. When software is available for free downloading then there may be no need by hackers or crackers to steal the software. However, many programmers and software houses reject the idea on the basis of the argument that everything possess a cost and that “there is no free lunch”. (Cherry, 2007, p.2- 4) This essay is aimed to provide a concise overview of free software, consideration of the arguments of each side, and at the end presentation of my personal observations and stance on the issue.

Discussion and Analysis

Most companies, on the business side, run its operation to show a profit and require some assurance that a return can be made by them on investment by defending their intellectual property. This suggestion to them makes no sense that all software should be free and freely available. Conversely, an iterative style of development is required by most software, and some software is at the least compatible to being scripted by programmers, in an open source mode for other programmers. When “programmer products” for example Apache, Linux, and Send Mail turn out to be more extensively employed or easier to use, rising numbers of the remainder of us can capitalize of this public good. (Feller et. al., 2005, p. xii)

Arguments against Free Availability of Software for Downloading

Proponents of free availability of software often propose that there should be “free” accessibility to information by considering their right to the information enclosed within the content distributed by them and according to them such distribution is a form of expression. In United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution of United States is cited by the ...