Product Piracy Using Specific Examples,

Product Piracy

Using specific examples, determine the actions companies and governments can take to ensure that products cannot be easily pirated? videos etc..

Product piracy is a term that relates to all illegal activities that involve imitating, copying, or counterfeiting of intellectual property. It may also include infringement and brand name misuse related to product development, manufacturers, retailers or use of product or services. This vice is normally considered illegal and punishable by the law owing to the fact that it violates the right of privacy. To eradicate this vice, a number of measures have been adopted by governments, individuals and multi-national organizations. According to the International Chamber of Commerce counterfeiting continues to be a rampant societal dilemma accounting to between 5-7% of world trade, it is estimated to be worth U.S. $600billion annually Wall Street, 2005()

Ways in which governments and companies can prevent piracy

One way of ensuring that products are not easily pirated is by using copy protection system. An example is the Serial Shield system which uses special code to defeat tracers, debuggers and monitors to prevent people analyzing unauthorized code instructions. It helps in protecting projects against cracking or code spying without permission. This system is also being initiated in music and software piracy by having them sold in forms which cannot be copied by another individual

ADDIN EN.CITE

(Hamister and Braunscheidel, 2011, Cummings, 2010)

The government can also assist in the fighting against piracy by instituting and enforcing of tough legislation on various products. The government should have an independent body which investigates sources of pirated products and prosecute them in case they are caught. The same bodies should also be responsible for ensuring that no pirated goods are passed into the boarders of a country through any means possible. The government can also reduce piracy by having registered bodies to deal with the production and sales of certain products which can become societal threat if wrongly manufactured. For instance pharmaceuticals may contain incorrect ingredients / quantities or even wrong formula which may seriously cause harm or even kill consumers if not properly handled Chaudhuri et al., 2006.

In this case the government should ensure no counterfeit medicines and over-the-counter drugs are sold to consumers and should work with World Health Organization (WHO) to identify the best way possible, set standards accordingly to avoid Counterfeit Medical Products.

The government can also help to stop or even reduce piracy by creating a better business environment for most industries. Through creation of this better working environment by offering subsidies, tax exemptions, free importation of raw products and even other costs which might increase the selling price. This will in turn lead to low selling price of most goods hence encouraging people to rely more on the goods because it is genuine and affordable. Pirated goods will therefore have no room to trade because the market will be flooded by genuine goods which are widely used by the citizens Wall Street, 2005()

In creating awareness i.e. using Anti-piracy, the government should increase education of public officials, customs and law enforcement officers to ensure products are not easily pirated while companies must take the lead in raising awareness, educating the public and decision makers on the harms and costs of product piracy. This kind of education helps to increase the effectiveness and discourage consumers from buying counterfeited and pirated products such as movies, music, softwares Smith and Telang, 2009()

Free trade zones provide some of the entry points of pirated goods into a country. Government can reduce or even stop the entry of such counterfeit products through regulating the market and having few agents to trade on behalf of individual or medium companies which form the majority. By reducing the number of individual traders, the commodities' genuineness can be certified easily hence reducing some of them passing unnoticed into the market.