Ethical Problems

One of the ethical dilemmas that repeatedly arises where I work is software piracy and other forms of "innocent" property rights infringements. The owner of the business herself uses bootleg copies of software, claiming that when she can afford it she will buy legal copies. Most of the employees download music or movies illegally at work and the supervisor and owner do not care. We have taken for granted our ability to download pirated material and even see it as our "right." Clearly it is not and this behavior is not only illegal it is unethical as well. It is not within my power to stop what the company owner does. She believes that big companies like Microsoft make enough money as it is and she is not hurting anyone by "borrowing" their software for a while. Claiming that she has bought enough Microsoft products already, she refuses to pay the thousands of dollars it would cost to upgrade our systems to make them legitimate. The owner does not mind that her employees download music and movies from the Internet either and does not view that behavior as unethical for similar reasons. She claims that big media corporations make enough money and that she already pays them when she does make the occasional purchase or when she sees a film in the theater.

It would be helpful if my supervisors and the owner could see that Microsoft and other big corporations are not necessarily overcharging for their products, by taking into account all the work that goes into software or music production. They might be able to read about the production process to see how many stages a product goes through before reaching market.

At the same time it would also be helpful if corporations like Microsoft would change their pricing system so that enterprise clients would pay more for the software than small businesses like ours, and especially individuals. Music and movie companies might also come up with a way to market their products more cheaply to consumers so that everyone gets a fair price. This ethical dilemma is not likely to disappear anytime soon because new technology makes it too tempting to pirate copyrighted material. This is not just about right and wrong; this issue relates to the fact that we cannot always afford everything we need.