Protecting Legitimate Software Users’ Interest in Designing a Piracy Prevention Technique on Computer Network

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to substantiate the fact that socio economic issue has to be put into consideration in any effort at preventing software piracy. A legitimate software owner must be given certain period of grace to cater for unforeseen contingencies during which re-installation is allowed without being counted against him. A mathematical equation - TUSRUC EQUATION (Time Usage of Software in Respect of Unforeseen Contingencies) is developed as an algorithmic function, which shows the way the system handles cases of unforeseen contingencies during the “first time” period of using a software product. These unforeseen contingencies can include the following and not limited to; reformatting of a system, sudden virus attack, system hardware damage.

Keywords: Software Piracy, Unforeseen contingencies, TUSRUC