WHAT IS ETHICS? The word ethics comes from the Greek word ethikos, meaning character.

There is a similar term that prevails in and many times considered synonym of ethics, is morality. But in essence these are quite different concept .the word morality has been derived from the Latin root moralist which means behavior. Ethico-moral actions thus pertain to set of actions engineered by the characters and expressed through behaviors. Ethics is a set of standards, or a code, or value system, worked out from human reason and experience, by which free human actions are determined as ultimately right or wrong, good or evil. If acting agrees with these standards, it is ethical, otherwise unethical. Business ethics refers to the application of ethics to business. To be more specific, business ethics is the study of good and evil, right and wrong and just and unjust actions of businessman. TYPES OF ETHICS IN BUSINESS 1. In business activities, most ethical questions could be of two types---overt and covert. Overt ethical problems like bribery, theft, sabotage etc are clear for everyone to see and are generally considered reprehensible. Covert ethical problems are more complex, types of problems occur in corporate acquisitions, marketing and personnel policies, capital investment, market war etc. They are difficult to locate, to eliminate and are consequently much more dangerous and threatening to business. 2. Ethics is unstructured, i.e., it does not have a structured format or framework. It is abstract in concept. Hence it does not have universal acceptance, mainly because: a. Ethics depends upon our moral standards; b. Moral standards depend upon our value system; c. The value system of people depend upon their background & childhood experience; & d. The background & experience of people are vastly different. Hence the ethical practices of people are also different.

THE ISSUE OF SOFTWARE PIRACY: Software piracy can be defined as unauthorised copying of software or can be described as the illegal duplication and distribution of copyrighted software for commercial or personal use. Software piracy has been in existence as early as the initial introduction of personal computers. When software is purchased, one is actually purchasing the license to use it and not purchasing the actual software. The license specifies how many times the software can be used as well as the number of copies an individual as the right to own. Thus, if one makes copies of the licensed software more than the license permits he or she is undergoing an act simply known as pirating. Downloading, sharing, selling or installing multiple copies onto work or personal computers all fall into the category of prating software. During the early days of software piracy, small pieces of software that could fit into the now extinct floppy disks were easily duplicated and passed on to others. PIRACY AND ETHICS Human behavior falls into 3 categories: -Law codified (legal standard) -Domain of free choice (personal standard) -Domain of ethics (social standard). The domain of ethics has no specified laws - yet it does have standards of conduct based on shared principles and values about modern conduct that guide an individual.

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Ethics differ from one person to another. Ethics at an individual level, is what most of us consider when discussing ethical issues. But it takes a different meaning altogether when this individual is a computing or an information technological professional, who is supposedly educated enough to be able to assess a situation with respect to what is right or wrong, when faced with moral questions such as use of pirated software. Ethical decisions are also hugely dissimilar when faced individually or with a group, such as a company. Individuals are faced with many opportunities to indulge in unauthorized copying of software. An individuals decision to be involved in something like this is a result of his outlook towards various ethical issues.The points to be emphasized here is that ethical conduct, as it relates computers and information technology, does not go beyond merely remaining within the ambit of law. Thus, an ethically acceptable decision is both legally and morally acceptable to the larger community. CULTURAL RELATIVISM & ETHICAL IMPERIALISM A continuing issue for debate in this area of international business and management practices is the influence of culture on ethical behavior. Following Figure presents a continuum that contrasts cultural relativism with ethical imperialism. Business ethicist Thomas Donaldson describes cultural relativism as the position that there is no universal right way to behave and that ethical behavior is determined by its cultural context. Cultural relativism Ethical imperialism

No culture's ethics are superior. Certain absolute truths apply everywhere. The values and practices of the local Universal values transcend cultures Setting determines what is right or wrong. in determining what is right or wrong.

FACTORS INFLUENCING AN INDIVIDUALS BEHAVIOR: When people find themselves in such a way that they have to decide if they should act in a way that might help another person even though doing so might go against their own selfinterest. Consider a situation where a computer professional working on an organization is asked by his manager to install pirated software on his computer. Would this individual install

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the pirated software or lose his job? Professionals in the industry are faced with many such ethical dilemmas everyday.

THE CHOICES OF A USER: The main reason for pirating software is that purchasing original copies of software is too costly. Users of pirated software feel that the greatly lowered price of purchasing pirated software found in the black market is a good enough justification to ignore purchasing an authentic copy at its original price. This argument is definitely not one to be ethical at all. The act of obtaining pirated software is equivalent to that of stealing. Stealing is defined as the act of taking something from someone unlawfully1. In this case, that something is a piece of software and someone is the software company. The price of software is usually set by its developing company at what they feel customers will pay for in order to maximize sales. Software companies and their employees deserve to be compensated for their efforts. This is no different to other industries, where the working class expects payment in exchange for their labor. AN OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC: A survey released in November 2007 reported that more than 80 percent of Russian companies use pirated software. The study commissioned by Microsoft, indicated that many Russian Managers believe that buying software legally is not cost effective. Questions are: 1. What do you think of this situation? 2. Who gets harmed by this action? 3. Have you ever used copies of illegally duplicated software or given to friends copied software, music or video games? Is there any different? Discuss. The survey actually indicates that a few number of (about 20 percent) companies may not be using pirated software. Following answers can be interpreted from the discussion above:

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1. As it is already mentioned that software piracy is copying someone elses computer

application, program, music, or video and using it as ones own. Likewise there are studies on the phenomenon of piracy practiced in organizations by IT professionals or managers for their organization. This kind of piracy practice is done solely for the purpose to avoid expenditure in the organizational IT infrastructure which ultimately results in higher profitability for organizations. Similarly many Russian Managers usually think that buying pirated software at lower price will add to the total profit of the company. This is because of comparatively higher price of legal software. Large enterprises normally evolves with the passage of time and they have a structured and state of the art IT infrastructure which is required to serve their large number of customer, hence they cannot afford the risk of being caught. Large enterprises also have enough resources to spend in the licensed and legal software. However, there are still chances that in large enterprises, software piracy is being practiced in smaller scale. The small and medium enterprises lack both the resources and structured infrastructure. There could be so many factors that influence the software piracy in these organizations but the role of IT professionals and the overall organizational culture may have a significant influence that lead to the software piracy. Now it can be depicted that more than 80 percent of the Russian companies who are using pirated software according to the survey, are may be small or medium enterprises. However large companies may also fall into this category by using pirated software illegally.

The analysis of this situation also indicates that how IT professionals or Managers Ethical Orientation and organizational culture influence the software piracy in the organizations.
2. People who write the software have rights to profit from it, just as people who write

books have sole right to sell them. Copying software is depriving the lawful owners of software of hard-earned earnings. With the current ease of piracy it can be expected

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that some people will try to obtain a profit on pirated software. But it will make huge loss in the software industry. Although software is an intangible product but it certainly has the value in the market. A single individual can commit hundreds of acts of software piracy everyday. Unfortunately, there are many people who engage in software piracy and whenever a piece of software that is unlicensed is used, it deprives software companies of their earnings. The thousands of hours of time that are spent working on programs by writers, programmers, design artists and others, goes uncompensated. The most obvious and direct impact would be if anyone take part in software piracy, they put themselves at risk to corrupt files intended to steal personal information or damage their computer. Even if people do not get involved in software piracy it has a direct impact on them because of the strain it puts on society. The global economy alone loses approximately 12 billion dollars a year on software piracy. Naturally the repercussions of this dramatic financial loss would be a loss of jobs, increased prices on legal software, flourishing illegal copywriting organizations, and uncompensated work by talented individuals.
3. Yes, we have used copies of illegally duplicate software and shared software, music,

videos and games with friends. It can be assumed that most people use pirated software because the original versions are so expensive and so for us. In case of any individual, using copied software, games, and videos and sharing with others also making a lot of impact in the global industry in respective areas. Individual downloading pirated software, games or videos will recommend this method to another individual. This will get to a point where people think that it is normal to download illegally. The common belief that since everyone else is pirating software, therefore it is okay for me to pirate software, does not make it less ethical to do so. In fact, that particular individual is also doing the same mistake like a group of people in an organization do. However, there is no such difference between me and people whoever doing illegal piracy in terms of getting benefited either individually or as a

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company. One can argue that downloading illegal software will not affect the software company because he or she will never buy an original copy anyway. However it is only logical that if an individual is not willing to pay for a particular piece of software, that person does not deserve to own a pirated copy privately. Using a pirated piece of software without the intention of buying it already suggests that you have an interest in the product. \ Another important factor already mentioned above is Cultural Relativism and Ethical Imperialism. These factors actually suits quite heavily as Managers of Russian companies may feel that using of pirated software is a regular practice rather no ethics involved here. In this case Russian Managers do not follow any universal right way to behave and that ethical behavior is determined by its cultural context of necessity Meanwhile, Managers of those companies actually influence their subordinates to use pirated software. It is clearly unethical issue for a developed country like Russia whose cent percent companies involved in software piracy. Already the impacts of software piracy in the society have been discussed. Technological advancement can only be enhanced by stopping piracy at any forms. Usually every piece of software is copyrighted and has its own licensing agreement, the terms of which vary significantly from software to software. To understand the terms and conditions and to be aware that licensing agreements exists should be the responsibility of every person who installs, distributes, and uses a piece of commercial software. We can conclude in this essay that ethical decisions in case of software piracy are typically guided by individualism, moral rights as well as utilitarian. As a generally optimistic person, I feel that this crisis will eventually get resolved. Companies like Microsoft have created a monster and the fact that their products are heavily pirated should tell them that their pricing is excessive. It would help if this software wasnt so expensive to begin with, so for me the first step would be to get the costs down to a level that

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the average person (and average small business) can afford. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

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