
CHAPTER
18
Software Risks, Rules,
Policies and Best Practices
Would you walk into your local computer store and steal a package of
software for business or personal use? Of course not. Yet many people
who would never consider shoplifting from a retail store are guilty of
‘‘softlifting,’’ or pirating, computer software.
1
Worldwide, software piracy is so pervasive that 35 percent of the
software installed on personal computers in 2006 was pirated, or illegally
obtained. That amounts to more than $40 billion in global losses for the
software industry, a 15 percent increase over the previous year, accord-
ing to the 2007 BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study. ...