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hard disk loading Last modified: Monday, April 28, 2008
A type of software piracy that occurs when hardware dealers; brick-and-mortar or Internet vendors, install an unauthorized copy of commercial software onto a computer system. In many cases consumers will not receive any manuals or original CD of the software but the hardware dealer may charge for the illegal software in the total system purchase price. The end-user, or the purchaser in this case, will then use the computer system with pirated software, often not realizing that the software that was pre-installed on the computer system is not legitimate. This type of piracy is most common with operating systems, especially older Microsoft branded operating systems such as Windows 95 and Windows 98.  Public awareness along with requiring users to activate or register their products has helped software manufactures deal with hard disk loading piracy. See software piracy. Also see"Is Software Ownership the Same as Licensing?" in the in the "Did You Know..." section of Webopedia.
Is Open Source the Answer to Software Piracy? Ever since the dawn of commercial software, piracy has been a problem without a realistic solution that meets the needs of both the software vendor and the end user. Microsoft Looks to Curb Piracy in Vista Update Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would disable the two primary methods used by software pirates to illegally copy Windows Vista software in the next major update of the operating system. Piracy's Other Price: Jobs The impact of software piracy and the illegal copying and distribution of other copyrighted works is hard to measure. Webopedia's "Did You Know...?" Section Use this Webopedia knowledge section for an in-depth overview of specific technologies and occurrences in the areas of Computer Science, The Internet, and Computer Hardware and Software. Webopedia's Software Category The Webopedia Software Category offers hundreds of term definitions and links related to the topic of Software.	Related Categories Digital Rights Management (DRM) Ethics Software Related Terms commercial software corporate software piracy counterfeit software EULA OEM unbundling softlifting software software licensing software piracy