a fine of up to $250,000 and 5 years in jail
Copyright infringement, also called piracy.
That is a description of copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement of software.
Copyright Law 1985 (C-42), as amended.
Copyright infringement in general is copying, altering, or distributing protected material without the permission of the copyright holder. If you have a software license to put a program on one computer and you put it on two, you have infringed the copyright. More details can be found in the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) of the program.
Making a copy of the software, including uploading it to a filesharing service, would be copyright infringement. Unauthorized alteration to the code would also be infringing.
Demo or trial software allows some use before purchase.
Computer Associates was in a court case in 1992. This case was about how to determine if there was any copyright infringement when it comes to software.
Mark S. Lee has written: 'Entertainment & intellectual property law' -- subject(s): Copyright, Copyright infringement, Entertainers, Intellectual property infringement, Law and legislation, Legal status, laws, Performing arts, Piracy (Copyright), Software protection
The Business Software Alliance is a trade group which specializes in software to aid in stopping copyright infringement of software. It's membership base makes a wide range of software from games to business software.
Piracy is a criminal act in all territories of the world. Software piracy, on the other hand, is not a recognised crime in all territories. To date, only 160 countries have ratified the Berne Convention which recognises copyright law internationally. Of those that have not ratified the treaty, some have their own copyright laws while the remainder do not recognise copyright infringement as being a crime.
No. Simply using a piece of software like frostwire is not a copyright infringement. There are legitimate uses for file sharing networks. It is only when copyrighted material is shared without permission that an infringement occurs.