Whats wrong with making a copy of my officemate or friends word-processing program to use on my personal computer?
Unauthorized duplication, distribution or use of someone else’s intellectual property, including computer software, constitutes copyright infringement and is illegal and subject to both civil and criminal penalties. Software piracy violates numerous Cornell policies; for extensive information on the subject, see Software Piracy: What You Should Know. The CIT publication “Using Software: A Guide to the Ethical and Legal Use of Software for Members of the Academic Community” — available at the ATS HelpDesk — offers a general overview of software categories and copyright law. For a list of Cornell’s software site licenses and educational-discount prices for individual and volume purchases, see the Cornell Software Information Directory.
