According to the Business Software Alliance, copyright infringement of software takes several forms, which include the following.
« CD-R infringment » is the illegal copying of software using CD-R recording technology. This form of copyright infringement occurs when a person obtains a copy of a software program and makes a copy or copies and re-distributes them to friends.
« Commercial [...]
The copyright infringement of software refers to several practices when done without the permission of the copyright holder:
Creating a copy and/or selling it. This is the act that some people refer to as « software piracy« . This is copyright infringement in most countries and is unlikely to be fair use or fair dealing if the work [...]
For the most part, the criminal law is only used for commercial copyright infringement with one exception, and an offence is committed when, knowing or reasonably suspecting that the files are illegal copies, and without the permission of the copyright owner, a person:
makes unauthorised copies e.g. burning music files or films on to CD-Rs or [...]
Though many jurisdictions impose penalties for certain blatant acts of copyright infringement and may try to stop certain infringing imports at the border, copyright infringement is still mainly prosecuted through private lawsuits by the copyright holder or their exclusive licensees. When successful, these lawsuits will typically impose monetary damages against the infringer as well as [...]
The unlawful downloading of pornography and sharing of recorded music in the form of MP3 and other audio files is more prominent than ever[citation needed], even after the demise of Napster and a series of infringement suits brought by the American recording industry. Promotional screener DVDs distributed by movie studios (often for consideration for awards) [...]