What is Software piracy?
[[File:Pro piracy demonstration.jpg|thumb|Demonstration in favor of Software piracy, in Stockholm, 2006]] '''Software piracy''' (officially called [[copyright infringement]] of software) refers to the illegal copying of [[software]]. It often uses the [[Internet]]. Some countries have laws about this. The problem is considered to be bigger in certain countries than in others. Those who hold the [[copyright]] get less [[money]] because of copyright infringement. As a result of this, some copyright holders publish “anti-piracy” campaigns to tell people about the effects of infringement. Very often, the people making the laws have to make a trade-off between allowing people to copy and use the software, and the copyright holders charging for the content. At the same time, even not allowed distribution makes the content more popular. Because of these two reasons, infringement of copyright for [[proprietary software]] and content can be bad also for [[free software]] and content. In 2010 to 2012, the entertainment industry advocated changes to United States law to make it easier to end piracy websites, called [[Stop Online Piracy Act]] and [[Protect IP Act]]. Some websites including the [[English Wikipedia]] protested these proposals on January 18, 2012. The next day, the [[United States Department of Justice]] seized the [[Megaupload]] website which is claimed to be one of the largest piracy websites.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204616504577171180266957116.html Department of Justice indictment, on Wall Street Journal's website] Retrieved January 21, 2012.</ref> == Why people use pirate software == Some reasons on why people pirate are: <ref>{{Cite news|title=Interview: Gabe Newell|work=The Cambridge Student ONLINE|url=http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/story_type/site_trail_story/interview-gabe-newell/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126125407/http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/story_type/site_trail_story/interview-gabe-newell/ |archive-date=2011-11-26 |url-status=live}}</ref> * [[Digital r