Christian Salvesen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Christian Salvesen - Essay Example Changes in political administrations have influenced the evolution of laws that concern disability discrimination. Various rights have been accorded to disabled employees to boost their chances of establishing equal playing fields. Amidst this effort, some firms have still failed to practise the prescribed regulations. To further strengthen the established laws, the Disability Discrimination Authority (DDA) continues to monitor the policies that companies formulate regarding their treatment to all employees especially the disabled workers. DDA has formalised the method in which firms provide benefits to workers with disability in the event of sickness or injuries. The next discussion will centre on the policy of Christian Salvesen in providing the needed assistance to its disabled workers. Also, the discussion will determine the conformity of the company's regulations to DDA policies. Wright Investors' Report (2006) provided a snapshot of the company's profile including some vital financial information. Christian Salvesen PLC is one of the major names in the industry of transportation. The company primarily caters the logistics needs and transfer of goods from the sites to the market. Most of its clients are manufacturing and retail companies that distributes wide range of products. The company primarily operates in United Kingdom (UK) and its main office is based in London. The current sales for 2006 are estimated at over 800 million British Pounds. At present, the total number of employees in the firm is 13,245. This suggests that the workforce of the company is one of the biggest in UK. Although the number of disabled workers is not established, it is predicted that there are several employees that have physical disabilities. Definitely, the frequency of workers in the company shows that there are other ventures aside from freight. In fact, the company has some industries that deal with agricultural products. The firm also focus of high valued products like automotive parts and other complex products. In addition, the food division covers fresh and processed goods. The consumer operations covers products classified as needs and luxuries. To illustrate the company's stability, it operates in over 200 hundred. Some of its assets include warehouses that are used to keep the inventories and equipments. Furthermore, the 5000 tractors and 6000 trailers show the strength of the company. All these realities contribute to the necessity of providing ample support to all employees of the company. More important, the welfare of the disabled workers has to be highlighted. The fundamental impetus of providing sickness benefits to disabled employees is underlined in the labour laws of UK. The DDA for instance works closely as an agent that ensures the firms religiously follow the laws. First, the company has sufficient resources to allocate for the benefits of disabled workers. Basically, impaired employees have to be allotted with higher privileges because of their physical frailties. The financial highlights of the firm pictures a company of prosperity and growth. Therefore, it has the capacity to maximise its personnel service budget and

Macromedia Dreamweaver Essay Example for Free

Macromedia Dreamweaver Essay The club will definitely need a web site which they can use to do a great number of things. Some of them are to attract customers and members, post up new events, provide customer support, make new members, submit it to search engines so more people can find out about it and so on. Cost is also a big factor to consider. Having a website is much cheaper than putting up an advert in a local or national publication. Some other advantages of having a website are reduced costs for printing and distributing services and sales information. Increase in customer base as new people learn about the club and its services. The hardware and software needed to make this site includes a web space on the net, a few good WYSIWYG editors for designing the pages like Microsoft FrontPage, Namo Web Editor or maybe Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks depending on the clubs needs. Also you obviously need a computer with an internet connection to make, upload and view the site. The website will have different pages to the site like home, members, contact us, about, events, register and site map. Database: A database would be very useful for the club because currently they have a long list of members and their information and details all on paper. So a computerized way of storing, inputting, viewing and editing data would be extremely useful because it would increase the speed and efficiency at which the staff would view and input data. The database will store information including but not limited to: name, address, email, phone number and date of birth. The hardware which we will need is a computer for making the database and the program. The software which we will need to create the actual database file would be Microsoft Access or SQL Server, and the software which we will need to create the program which can access the database and provide methods for viewing and inputting data could be Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C# or any other programming language. We could just create the database and the interface both in Access but a good programming language offers a lot more flexibility and functions. Forms: This can prove to be very useful for the club because currently the club has all of its forms on paper. So with computerized forms, when members want to book a plane for skydiving, or want to enroll for summer bungee jumping classes then the staff can just input the data needed in a Microsoft Word template and print it for the member. The hardware which we may need is a computer for printing and inputting data in forms, printer for printing out forms and receipts. The software which we will need is Microsoft Word with a customized template for each form so the staff can just open Word and load the template so all the fields required would already be there, they would just need to fill them in. Printer: The club will definitely need a good color printer to print out all sorts of things like forms, receipts, posters, banners, leaflets and pictures. The club right now doesnt have a computer or a printer so they cannot make any banners or posters to advertise their club or any new events or services. Also because they dont have a printer they cannot print out forms and receipts so they have to right down the information for a receipt and then give it to the member or the customer which is very time consuming and inefficient. The hardware which we will need is obviously a computer to connect the printer with and to send data to the printer so that it can print the desired information. E-commerce: An e-commerce system would also be useful for the club if they want to sell their own extreme sports gear like snowboards, goggles, etc. Or things like Proudlies Xtreme t-shirts and caps to promote their club and make it more popular. An online shopping system would enable them a place where members or customers could go, get and purchase sporting gear online. A link to the catalogue would be added to the main website. The online shop would also enable PXtreme to make a lot of extra money which they could use to improve their services. Programs we might need for this could be editors like Microsoft FrontPage or Namo Web Editor. The hardware needed would be a computer with an internet connection to make, upload and view the site. Camera: A camera should be necessary for this club because if the club has a camera then it could do many things like take pictures from events and post them on the site for other members to view. The club could take pictures of the summer programs in action. It could take pictures of the club itself so that people know what it looks like and they might come and enroll for membership or it could take pictures of the staff so that they can post it up on the site in staffing section. With a camera they would be able to upload the pictures onto a computer and then it will be a lot easier for them to make posters and banners because they would be able to insert the clubs pictures in them. The hardware needed would be a computer to upload the pictures on and then print them if needed, and the software required to upload photos will come with the camera. Staffing: The staff in PXtreme is made up of 5 people: the founder, the president, the vice president, secretary and the treasurer. This is the board of directors. These people will be running the club for the next 4 years and they have just been elected by the members of the club apart from the founder who will be looking after the club until he retires. The staff gets a very small salary and this isnt their full-time job, they have another job besides running the club. These people are running PXtreme just because they love sports. Each person is looked at in detail below. Founder: The founder of this club is Ozzy Kumar who has been with the club ever since it was made. Ozzy grew up in Yorkshire but moved to Hong Kong for financial reasons. He studied in Leeds University and finished his masters in computer science and graduated with first class honors. He doesnt do much except for making sure that his club is running fine without any problems and is making lots of profit. He is obsessed with extreme sports like snowboarding which is why he opened up this club. He isnt directly involved with anything going on in the club but he was the one who hired the four people below. President: The president of Proudlies Xtreme is Jenice Whitehouse. She grew up in London, driven by her love of history she went on to Bristol University to complete her BA. Jenice is the head of staff and she is the one who comes up with new events, services, makes sure that the staff is doing its job properly and makes sure that the club is running smoothly without any problems. She makes the big decisions for the club like when to buy new equipment and basically supervises everything which is going on. She knows every little nook and cranny of the club because she is always cruising around the club ensuring everythings working well. The IT needs which would be useful to her would be the website which she would use when she wants to update any events or news. Vice President: The vice president of PXtreme is Robin Hampshire who helps Jenice Whitehouse with everything. He grew up in Scotland and studied in De Montfort University Bedford when he gained a BSC in sport science and a PGCE in Physical Education. He helps to make decisions and also its his job to decide what sports the club should provide and when and where the classes and training programs should be. He is never to far from the action and is always involved with all the activities going on. The IT needs which would help him would also be a website and he would use it when he needs to upload information about events and programs. Secretary: The secretary of PXtreme is Ivy Alba who really loves extreme sports and her role in the club is to handle all the paperwork. She is Korean but has lived in Hong Kong. She studied in Newcastle for a BA in Sports Studies followed by time at the University of Exeter, St Lukes College where she gained her PGCE. She also has to keep track of all the members information and details. She is the one who signs up new members and she also handles any phone calls to the club. Ivy is very good at art so she has been assigned to make small posters and leaflets informing members of new events. The IT needs which she would find useful are the database, forms and the printer. She would use the database when she wants to add new members to it or edit member info, and she would use the forms to print and give to the members. Treasurer: The treasurer of PXtreme is Jack Frost who grew up in Japan and is a graduate of Leeds University. Jack only loves two things in life: business studies and extreme sports. He is in charge of all the finance, the funds, revenues and taxes. He decides the membership fees and the fees for specific training programs or summer classes. He sees how much money comes in per month and handles the money accordingly. He decides what equipment needs to be bought. The IT needs which he would find useful would be the e-commerce system. He will figure out the pricing and cost of each product and handle the purchasing process.

Exposing the Truth in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong Essay -- Things

Exposing the Truth in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong   Ã‚   "Dear Mom and Dad: The war that has taken my life, and many thousands of others before me, is immoral, unlawful, and an atrocity," (letter of anonymous soldier qtd. In Fussell 653). Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam war vet, had similar experiences as the soldier above. Even though O'Brien didn't die, the war still took away his life because a part of him will never be the same. Even in 1995, almost thirty years after the war, O'Brien wrote, "Last night suicide was on my mind. Not whether, but how. Tonight it will be on my mind again... I sit in my underwear at this unblinking fool of a computer and try to wrap words around a few horrid truths" (Vietnam 560). 1 think that O'Brien is still suffering from what he experienced in Vietnam and he uses his writing to help him deal with his conflicts. In order to deal with war or other traumatic experiences, you sometimes just have to relive the experiences over and over. This is what O'Brien does with his writing; he expresses his emotional truths even if it means he has to change the facts of the literal truth. The literal truth, or some of the things that happen during war, are so horrible that you don't want to believe that it could've actually have happened. For instance, "[o]ne colonel wanted the hearts cut out of the dead Vietcong to feed to his dog.... Ears were strung together like beads. Parts of Vietnamese bodies were kept as trophies; skulls were a favorite... The Twenty-fifth Infantry Division left a 'visiting card,' a torn off shoulder patch of the division's emblem, stuffed in the mouth of the Vietnamese they killed," (Fussell 655). While we don't want to believe these things because they sound too atrocious, soldi... ...e who sent the soldiers to war are just as responsible as the soldiers for any acts of war they committed. Works Cited Fussell, Paul. "Vietnam." The Bloody Game: An Anthology of   Modern War. Ed. Paul Fussell. London: Scribners, 1991. 651-6. O'Brien, Tim.   "How to Tell a True War Story." Writing as  Re-Vision. Eds. Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully.   Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1996. 550-8. _________.   In the Lake of the Woods.   New York: Houghton   Mifflin, 1994. __________.   "The Lives of   the Dead."   The Things They  Carried.   New York: Viking Penguin, 1990. 255-273. __________.   "The Vietnam in Me."   Writing as Re-Vision. 559-571. Schroeder, Eric James.   "Tim O'Brien: Maybe So."   Vietnam,  We've All Been There: Interviews with American Writers.   Ed.   Eric James Schroeder.   Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1992. 125-43.

Autism in the Media Essay -- Media Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Autism in the Media      Ã‚   "Weepinbell, w-e-e-p-i-n-b-e-l-l; Tentacool, t-e-n-t-a-c-o-o-l ; Geodude . . . ," yelled Connor. We were playing his favorite game - identify and spell the names of all 156 Pokà ªmon characters. Connor is a three-year-old boy I worked with as part of the SonRise therapy that his mother organized after he was diagnosed with autism. During my thrice-weekly Connor-directed playtime visits, I entered his world instead of making him enter mine and encouraged eye contact to strengthen Connor's connection with others.    I begin this critique of autism depiction in mass media relating my relationship with Connor because he informs my understanding of autism and colors my critique of media representations. For people who do not know autistic individuals personally, however, perceptions of autism have been shaped, by and large, by character depictions in a series of feature films over the last fifteen years, most notably Rain Man (1988), House of Cards (1993), and Molly (1999). I here examine these three films, each with an autistic main character, to evaluate the image of autism presented to the public and to discuss how that image has changed in the last fifteen years. However, before an analysis of the films, I will briefly overview autism as it is currently diagnosed and treated.    Autism is the label given to a set of behaviors summarized by the International Classification of Disease ICD-10 Handbook as1: 1. Impairment in reciprocal social interaction. 2. Impairment in verbal and non-verbal communication and in imaginative activity. 3. Markedly restricted variety in activities and interests.    Generally, autistic children are first identified by ... ...ons of autism over the last fifteen years reflect popular notions and hopes for cures to psychological disorders. Because mass media representations of autism reach a thousand fold the number of individuals who ready Psychology Review Today and other academic journals, films are an important source of information and a possible forum for advocacy and should be used as such.    Bibliography 1. Frith, U. 1989. Autism; Explaining the Enigma. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell. 2. Hobson, P. 1993. Autism and the Development of Mind. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3. Mesibov, G., Lynn, A. and Klinger, L. 1997. Autism; Understanding the Disorder. New York: Plenum Press 4. Grandin, T. 1995. "An Inside View of Autism." http://www.autism.org/temple/inside.html Feature Films: Rain Man (1989) Molly (1999) House of Cards (1993)

Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi â€Å"To make justice visible in the land to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the weak. † The Code of Hammurabi was a law code written by King Hammurabi. The code was carved in a black pillar and was placed in a temple. This was so the entire village had knowledge of it. It was written sometime between 1792 to 1750 B. C. E. and was partly based off of the Code of Lipit-Ishtar.People in the 1700’s were punished, although punishments weren’t meant to exceed the crime, women had less rights and lower social standing then men, and they highly valued family. â€Å"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,† represents a harsh sense of justice based on revenge. King Hammurabi made his laws this way to prevent crimes from happening. Once a person knew penalty of a crime the likelihood of the person committing a crime greatly decreased. Also, he wanted this all people were not viewed as equals.The punishments for the same crime committed by a free man versus a slave were incredibly harsher towards the slave. â€Å"If a man knocked out the tooth of a man that is equal his tooth shall be knocked out,† whereas if a slave had knocked out the tooth of a free man he would have to pay one third of mina of silver. King Hammurabi may have wanted quality but he did not achieve it through his laws. Woman may have played important roles in the Babylonian society, but they certainty were not treated this way.The Hammurabi Code is extremely gender bias towards women, the laws were meant to control the woman in the society. Women were viewed more as an arranged contract between the woman’s father and her suitor. â€Å"If a man has taken a wife and has not executed a marriage contract, that woman is not his wife. † If a wife is caught cheating in the act she can be strangled or become her husbands’ slave, whereas if a husband is caught cheating he has to pay said wife. Clearly, women were treated unfairly compared to men in this society.These laws were considered family laws. Family was the basic unit of daily life. Laws required deep respect towards parents. â€Å"If a son struck his father, his hands shall be cut off. † Hammurabi Code forbids incest. It states â€Å"if a man has committed incest with his daughter, that men shall be banished from the city. † Babylonian Society was very concerned about gender, class, and family. Women were viewed more as possessions then people. Women didn’t get to pick their husband; their father chose and made the arrangements with their future husband.A white male had a higher standing in society than a black man. If a white man and a black man committed the same crime, the black man would face worse consequences. You cannot disown your children legally, unless the said child committed a grave misdemeanor. The most concerned problem for Babylonian society was people lying in trial to a Judge. In most cases punishment for this was death, a serious problem that results in a serious punishment. The Code of Hammurabi showed the types of crimes they had thousands of years ago.

Okonkwos Fear-From Things Fall Apart Essays - Free Essays

Okonkwo's Fear-From Things Fall Apart Essays - Free Essays Okonkwo's Fear-From Things Fall Apart Okonkwos fear Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, is a story of a man whose life is dominated by his fears. There are many subtle themes throughout this book. One theme that cries out over the rest is Okonkwos, the main character, fear of weakness as seen through his childhood, his oldest son, and eventually his death. Since his childhood, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father, In his day he (Unoka) was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow(p.4). By the standard of his clan, Unoka was a coward and squanderer. When he was a child, a boy called Okonkwos father an agbala. This word means woman as well as a man who has no title. His carelessness left numerous debts unpaid at his death. Ashamed of his father, Okonkwo worked hard and fought well to gain a reputation of high status and influence in his clan. He acquired three wives, one whom gave him his first son. Okonkwos first wife, whose name is never mentioned, gave birth to his first son, Nwoye. Okonkwo saw Nwoye weak and lazy from an early age. For this, Nwoye was beaten constantly. Okonkwo was highly demanding of his family because of his obsession not to be like his father. He mistook this behavior as masculinity. He wished his son were a promising, manly son like his friend Obierikas son, Maduka, who was also a great fighter. One night the town of Umuofia was told that someone in Mbaino had killed one of their daughters. The woman was Ugbeufi Udos wife. The blood price for the murder was a virgin and young man to Umuofia. The virgin was given to Ugbeufi Udo as his wife. They did not know what to do with the young boy, Ikemefuna. Okonkwo was asked on behalf of the clan to take care of the boy. Secretly, Okonkwo grew fond of Ikemefuna, Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy-inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger(p.28). Ik emefuna lived with Okonkwo and his family for three years until the time came when the Oracle said that Ikemefuna had to be killed. Okonkwo was warned not to have any part in killing the boy who called him father. He ignored this and upon returning sank into a deep depression which kindled the affliction inside of him. Not only the death of Ikemefuna, but also the accidental killing of Ogbeufi Ezeudus son, which gets Okonkwo and his family exiled for seven years, aides in his depression. To atone for the killing of his clansmens son, Okonkwo and his family were cast out of Umuofia and were forced to go live with his mothers clan in Mbanta. In their second year a group of six missionaries traveled to Mbanta and tried to persuade the people from their false gods of wood and stone to the one true God. They captured Nwoye and he later joined their congregation. When Okonkwo was informed of the news he strangled Nwoye in anger. He questioned how he could have fathered such a weak son. At the end of the seven-year exile, Okonkwo was able to return home. However, the church had taken over Umuofia also. Nothing was the same. Okonkwo refused to integrate with the new visitors. He thought that the clans failure to remove them was womanly. Almost happy again, Okonkwo began to accept the new Umuofia. Then the leaders of the clan, including Okonkwo, were taken for ransom by the church. Deeply angered by what was happening, Okonkwo killed one of the leaders at a meeting. The pacif ication of Okonkwos clan is what depressed him. He knew his clan would not go to war. This desire to act violently all goes back to his fathers lack of desire. In the end the violence settled on Okonkwo, when he hung himself. In conclusion, all these aspects: his childhood, his first son and Ikemefuna, and his death contribute in explaining Okonkwos fear of weakness. Okonkwos life was controlled by his fears. He valued the success of his family and the community with his own success. If Nwoye was weak it was because

aftificial lift Essay

aftificial lift Essay aftificial lift Essay 1. The most common type of artificial lift pump system applied is beam pumping, which engages equipment on and below the surface to increase and push oil to the surface. Consisting of a sucker rod string and a sucker rod pump, beam pumps are the familiar jack pumps seen on an on shore oil wells. Hydraulic pumping is another type of artificial lift, hydraulic pumping equipment applies a downhole hydraulic pump, rather than sucker rods, which lift oil to the surface. The production is forced against the pistons, causing pressure and the pistons to lift the fluids to the surface. Hydraulic pumps are mostly composed of two pistons, one above the other, which are connected by a rod that moves up and down within the pump. The surface hydraulic pumps and the subsurface hydraulic pumps are powered by oil, or clean oil that has been previously lifted from the well. The electric submersible pump systems employ a centrifugal pump below the level of the reservoir fluids. Connected two a long electric motor, the pump is composed of several impellors, or blades, that move the fluids within the well. 2. Oil production is separated into three phases: primary, secondary, and tertiary, which is also known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (Eor). Primary oil recovery is limited to hydrocarbons that naturally rise to the surface, or those that use artificial lift devices, such as pump jacks. Secondary recovery employs water and gas injections,

Essay on My Life Achievement Essays

Essay on My Life Achievement Essays Essay on My Life Achievement Paper Essay on My Life Achievement Paper My Life Achievement Essay Many people judge others by their life achievements such as educational level and material possession. Some clichà © of people argues that an individual’s life achievement shows their level of hard work and dedication. However, it is important to judge people not just by their past achievements, but also by the things they aspire to achieve in the coming days (Pajaczkowska, 2013). From that point of view, I appear to have attained a life achievement by graduating from college. The vision and goals I hope to achieve in life compels me to fix my eyes on the ball in order to attain them in the near future. In this paper, I would address my personal achievement, which is graduating from college. For some students, attending a college is a way to improve professionally while it is a way to improve one’s situation for others. For many students, attending a college is a path that will help them improve their family’s situation and make the community proud of them. I decided to join a college to gain professional skills that will allow me to get a decent job. I had goals that I wanted to achieve, and I believed getting a diploma will allow me to reach those targets. I also believed that a good college will enhance my socialization skills. I am happy that I managed to graduate despite various challenges that I encountered as an immigrant student. I thank God that I graduated, but it was not easy for me. I was an immigrant student and the only member of my family to be in a college. There are many challenges that face immigrants’ students; they find it hard to get fees assistance from institutions that help students and also they may face cultural challenges. There are times I might have felt to give up, but I encourage myself to go forward and make an achievement. I could not allow those challenges to deter my ambition to graduate one day since I was determined to succeed. My family gave me moral support that was instrumental during my college days. As the first person in my family to join college and graduate, I hope to be a role model for other family members and friends who aspire to join college. I worked hard in order to graduate. I attended every lecture so that I could not miss any information from the professors. Apart from a few college mates, a majority of them were instrumental in my studies because they provided a good environment for learning. The contribution of my lecturers cannot be ignored; they were always ready to offer guidance concerning various questions that I asked them. When I see my diploma, I see myself as a successful person, and I count it as a life achievement. The college life gave me an opportunity to meet many students from different walks of life and enhance my socialization skills. I hope my graduation from college will serve to motivate other young people from my family and community. I hope they will learn from my perseverance and be motivated to study hard. Since I am now a graduate, I can apply for any job that I qualify because graduating from college has given me a key to open the door for jobs. I hope to impact my family, community and the entire world in a positive way. References Pajaczkowska, A. (2013). Jan Czochralski: Brief sketch of his life and achievements. Journal of Crystal Growth.

Evaluate feyerabend's argument that society needs to be defended Essay

Evaluate feyerabend's argument that society needs to be defended against science. to what extent does science deserve the specia - Essay Example In these two books, he expresses and defends his ideas on the nature of scientific methods, concluding that there are no ground rules on governing scientific methods. He opposed the idea of having a single rigid scientific process to which all scientific research is carried out with the argument that this would make science predictable thus denying it the opportunity to evolve (Feyerabend 2000). In this study, Feyerabend shows that new findings in science, on which theories are later founded, have enormous influence from past events, theoriesand facts. Scientists researching in a new area of study do not only apply old scientific methods in fresh observations but they also observe the field under study under the mental influence of old theories and already existing facts. To this effect, much of their findings will be subjected towards what they already know in this field, such that their new work appears to marchnew observations to old facts and while improving them to come up with new theories. This process shows high levels of falsification in science, where scientists will do anything to defend their theories and ensure that they fit in with significant facts to avoid dismissal (Feyerabend 2000).With these and other arguments, Feyerabend uses philosophical facts and methods to show reasons why the society should be defended from science. This paper evaluates Feyerabend’s argument that the society should be protected from science, and the degree to which science warrant the special epistemic status it enjoys. The paper achieves its aim by looking at science and society, and then narrows down to the effect of science on eduation and religion. Through this, this essay will cover the need of protecting the society from science and the significance of science in such areas, which warrant its use in them. Science and Society- Scientific Methods Feyerabend developed an anarchistic philosophy of science. Anarchism is a political philosophy in which all forms of state authority are viewed as undesirable and unnecessary. Anarchists advocate for a free society that is based on voluntary participation in activities, and freedom of association between individuals and groups. Anarchism involves opposing the influence of authority and hierarchies that affect human interaction within a society within a state. These societies advocate for a society with no hierarchies and have no influence from state institutions. Feyerand advocated for separation of the state from science in the same manner that religion is detached from the state in the modern world (Feyerabend 2000). He envisioned a society where all traditions have equivalent treatment with equal privileges in accessing attention and central power. The period of the late 90’s was when science was honourable and viewed as a great privilege. Scientific facts were treated with great reverence to the point where individuals sacrifices their traditional and cultural believes Feyerand thou ght that too much credit was given to science in a situation where the society was not fully equipped with enough information and facts on the true nature of science. The society was therefore, exposed to science without proper information on the traditions, theories and functionalities of science. This was done since it was a new

Community Issue Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Community Issue Article - Essay Example The leading cause of pollution within urban areas is road transport, which accounts for more than 53 thousand premature deaths. Air pollution refers to the transfer of harmful and discomforting materials in the atmosphere and the environment. Air pollution has been one of the significant environmental issues affecting communities in United States since the advent of industrialization. Increased populations in the urban areas and traffic crowding have increased the toxic chemicals in the air within the cities. This traffic-caused pollution is associated with the likelihood of cancer together with pregnancy problems. Many of industries and power generation plants within the neighborhoods of United States communities emit harmful chemicals into the air. Though these companies assist in the development of the country’s economy, the emissions have adverse effects on people’s health. Scientific studies have also shown that a person’s risk of getting stroke can increase by 30% if they encounter ‘moderate’ amount of air pollution on a daily basis. The adverse effects of air pollution have attracted political and scientific attention. The evidence associating air pollution to premature deaths has made the nation wake up and realize that air pollution is a significant community issue in the urban areas and something need to be done to address it. According to a report by the Voice of America (1), people who die prematurely due to air pollution always die a decade earlier than they would have died. Premature deaths are prevalent in densely populated regions, which increase residential air pollution through heating and cooking emissions. This is most prevalent in the West and East coasts of United States. Air pollution from industries and power generating industries seem to be high and prevalent in Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia. Gulf coast regions have high air pollution levels

Global Healthcare Exchange Case Study Assignment

Global Healthcare Exchange Case Study - Assignment Example Secondly, the founders made it clear that their aim was not the registration of an Initial Public Offering (IPO). They had a commitment to increase â€Å"customer value†, which was about the improvement of services to customers, and not â€Å"market value†, which would have been about increasing profits for investors. On one hand, GHX founding companies are all buyers or sellers in the medical supplies industry. Therefore, to this extent, the figure is true. However, on the other hand, GHz is a separate entity with its own management, vision, and direction. This makes it a third party since it considers the collective interests of all the players in the medical supplies industry. GHX software capabilities for the primary benefit of suppliers before the merger with Medibuy included the GHX AllSourceâ„ ¢ Catalog. Suppliers maintained their catalogs, which in turn formed the database that buyers queried. Software for the benefit of the buyers included GHX Connectâ„ ¢ that allowed buyers to utilize their existing ERP systems to connect to GMX’s exchange platform. The GHX Advantageâ„ ¢ let buyers use an intermediary platform hosted by a GMX partner to access the exchange platform (Applegate 23). GMX developed an ERP, the GHX Axiomâ„ ¢, used by buyers with no ERP (Applegate 23). The software discussed above-handled connectivity. On the value-added services, there was the Report Source, which provided buyers with real-time information about their transaction on the Exchange platform. The second one was the GHX Content Intelligenceâ„ ¢ that identified any errors in the transaction process such as discrepancies in catalogs and alerted the parties involved (Applegate 23).

Instructional Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Instructional Strategies - Essay Example The prescriptions included the art of teaching facts, concepts, interpersonal skills, procedures, attitudes and principles or rules. The following paper describes a generative strategy to support the above prescriptions. Teaching Facts Facts are truths about real life happenings. The teacher should vividly lay down the facts and give their meanings for the student to recall easily. The teacher should also ensure that the student can integrate the facts laid down in their science projects so that they achieve the desired results. Further, the teacher should also organize the facts in a chronological manner for the students to smoothly capture the required meaning. Eventually, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the facts laid down in their own words without problems or deviating from the real meaning. This would ensure that the students generate factual projects and in return scoring higher grades. Teaching Concepts Morrison et al describes concepts a group of sim ilar ideas or things. The teacher should lay down the concepts in a manner that the student can easily recall and comprehend. ... Further, the teacher must make sure that the concepts are well organized for the student to emulate and apply them properly in their projects. Lastly, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the concepts in their own words without distorting the meaning and importance of the concepts. Teaching principals and rules According to Morrison et al, the definition of a rule or principle is a relationship between concepts (2010). Thus, the teacher should clearly state the principle involved in the science projects and make sure that the students understand and recall the principles. Then the teacher should ensure that the students can integrate the principles learnt in their science projects and organize the principles in a chronological manner. Lastly, the teacher should ensure that the middle school students can elaborate the principles in their own words so as to make conclusive projects. Teaching procedures The teacher should formulate a procedure and follow it properly so that the student can follow another on their projects. Then the teacher should ensure that the student can integrate the procedural skills gained in their projects, and organize them chronologically. In addition, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the procedures adequately for proper development of their science projects. Teaching interpersonal skills Interpersonal skills are the ways that human beings use to relate to each other in a cordial manner (Gibson, 1999). Teachers should educate their students on ways of relating to each other in order to help each other in their science projects. The student should be taught that interpersonal skills enable people to help each other out and ask for help. The teacher should

Computer technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Computer technology - Essay Example Computer systems consist of both software and hardware. The hardware components are tangible components of the system: main memory, CPU, peripherals such as monitor, video display etc (Gookin 2006). Software part is the set of instructions that define what the actions of the computer hardware (Alagar and Peryasammy 2011). Typically a computer requires both the system software Minimum user requirements Fred, Barry and Jane need a Single PC for their gaming needs. Frankly, there are no many options for a PC with the minimum requirements they desire that can go for the price in their budget estimate of 350. For a gaming PC no existing integrated graphics acceleration cards can handle the processing requirements of the game. In this case a graphics processor that is dedicated will still be required. OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7 Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz RAM: 2GB Graphic card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card, ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher. Graphics card memory: 512 MB Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version Fig. 1 Complete desktop computer The retailer has the option of making a choice between several brands, manufacturers of computers; Dell, Hewlett Packard and IBM. In my assessment I would recommend a machine that is high performing with the functionality that can well fit the gaming requirements. Since the budget constraints the selections, the best option is to go for the components that are most important in supporting gaming requirements. The computer features most essential for a gaming machine are; processor, graphics card, internal memory and hard disk capacity. Compromising on other desired features such as sound will not harm the game and the advantage will be the cost cuts. Justification Quad-Core Processor Though lesser processors such as dual-core are cheaper and within the budget, the ability of a quad core to s upport a larger number of tasks at the same time is a must for serious gaming. This is a good processor will help the computers to run effectively. The processor is the brain of the computer and controls most of the work done by the PC. For gaming requirements, multimedia multitasking, for example video recording while browsing will give a more pleasant experience. Processors are generally defined by their speed - in megahertz (MHz) or in gigahertz (GHz) - and it relates to the number of operations they can perform per second. The higher the value, the faster the PC will perform and the more expensive it generally is. I will recommend the Quad-Core AMD Opteronâ„ ¢ Processor with Direct Connect Architecture are designed to deliver industry leading power efficiency, optimal virtualization, outstanding performance, and low TCO - all within a consistent footprint and thermal envelopes. Fig. 2 Central processing unit AMD Phenomâ„ ¢ X4 Quad-Core Processors is a true quad-core perfor mance for the way gaming multi-task today, and for the next-generation applications that will be needed in the near future. Stable commercial AMD Phenomâ„ ¢ X4 quad-core processors offer industry-leading platform stability and longevity, investment protection, and the exceptional performance you expect from AMD. In addition, the processor comes with unique features for energy efficiency ‘AMD’ (2011). Random Access Memory (RAM) The computers will need about 4 gigabytes of memory so that they can run

Instructional Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Instructional Strategies - Essay Example The prescriptions included the art of teaching facts, concepts, interpersonal skills, procedures, attitudes and principles or rules. The following paper describes a generative strategy to support the above prescriptions. Teaching Facts Facts are truths about real life happenings. The teacher should vividly lay down the facts and give their meanings for the student to recall easily. The teacher should also ensure that the student can integrate the facts laid down in their science projects so that they achieve the desired results. Further, the teacher should also organize the facts in a chronological manner for the students to smoothly capture the required meaning. Eventually, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the facts laid down in their own words without problems or deviating from the real meaning. This would ensure that the students generate factual projects and in return scoring higher grades. Teaching Concepts Morrison et al describes concepts a group of sim ilar ideas or things. The teacher should lay down the concepts in a manner that the student can easily recall and comprehend. ... Further, the teacher must make sure that the concepts are well organized for the student to emulate and apply them properly in their projects. Lastly, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the concepts in their own words without distorting the meaning and importance of the concepts. Teaching principals and rules According to Morrison et al, the definition of a rule or principle is a relationship between concepts (2010). Thus, the teacher should clearly state the principle involved in the science projects and make sure that the students understand and recall the principles. Then the teacher should ensure that the students can integrate the principles learnt in their science projects and organize the principles in a chronological manner. Lastly, the teacher should ensure that the middle school students can elaborate the principles in their own words so as to make conclusive projects. Teaching procedures The teacher should formulate a procedure and follow it properly so that the student can follow another on their projects. Then the teacher should ensure that the student can integrate the procedural skills gained in their projects, and organize them chronologically. In addition, the teacher should ensure that the student can elaborate the procedures adequately for proper development of their science projects. Teaching interpersonal skills Interpersonal skills are the ways that human beings use to relate to each other in a cordial manner (Gibson, 1999). Teachers should educate their students on ways of relating to each other in order to help each other in their science projects. The student should be taught that interpersonal skills enable people to help each other out and ask for help. The teacher should

Real estate debt markets Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Real estate debt markets - Assignment Example The original plan of the buyers was to refurbish and add more size to the building convert it in a building with several places of renting. For this property, potential investors acted first to buy it which today is 26% let. There is a cash flow excel sheet showing a holding period of 5 years starting with an investment of $76 million the first year of purchasing the property and making installments of about $ 67,000 annually. The loan plan used in pricing in relation to the document is in installments as the building is too expensive to purchase a block the first time. The point here is that, there are to be small premiums. These premiums are about the size that the banks want to buy the property. The total loan amount is $17,230,802 in order to purchase the building with a maturity date of 30/11/2014. The interest was at three months with 350 bps. The maximum price to get the loan is $17,230,802. In order to get the $76 needed, the will have to installments made to purchase the bui lding. The strategy employed is that of getting all the investors to on the investor’s committee to understand the value of buying the mezzanine loans, as this would help the investors to purchase the building. The building should have returns to give encouragement to the lenders, Danske. The project had several recommendations and conclusions such always waiting for the right time in order to get the loans among the others. In addition, the purchase of the loan itself is to under installment process and not paying at once. The investors should participate by doing a fact-finding survey of the property and loans to see if they are worth undertaking. The final decision on taking the loan is on principle of business and investment as whether to make such a mega loan. The property needs evaluations to see if it is in the standard class. Such a type attracts quality tenants. The

Personally I have sympathy Essay Example for Free

Personally I have sympathy Essay He also states I had deprived myself of rest and health, meaning that he had worked so hard and long it had effected his health. When Victor looks for the monster on the frozen ocean he still tries to gain sympathy using language such as despair and I myself was about to sink under accumulation of distress. Here he is speaking metaphorically; hes talking about sinking in the sea, as well as sinking emotionally. With so much talk of self pity, the reader could easily forget that this journey is one of vengeance. Victor sees the monster as his enemy and says his soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery, and fiend like malice. He also tells Walton to thrust your sword into his heart, I will hover near, and direct the steel alright. His hate for the monster is so intense; he thinks that he can help in killing the monster, even in supernatural life. Even though Victor is seen as an arrogant, self righteous character, we have sympathy for him because he starts a series of events that he eventually has no control over. He creates a monster that kills his family and feels compelled to seek him out and end his life. His desire is burning within my heart, and he is powerless not to obey it. Whereas Victors downfall could be seen as of his own making, the creature seems to be a victim of circumstance and outside influences. The creature says, The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable passion. He considers himself to have no control over his actions as they are a result of how he was made. He also claims I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen, and that evil thenceforth became my good. The monster is looking for understanding for his terrible actions when he says I was the slave, not the master. He is trying to portray himself as a victim rather than the villain. In this passage the creature speaks descriptively to try and make the reader feel sympathy. He says that in the beginning it was the love of virtue, he feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed. This turned into bitter loathing and despair and it speaks of how its crimes had degraded itself. It compares itself to a fallen angel who becomes a malignant devil. It considers itself to be more sinned against than the sinner when it says all humankind sinned against me. The feeling of self pity continues with I desired love and fellowship and I was still spurned and your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. It feels totally injustice towards itself with everyone despising it and having sympathy only for Victor. This would make the reader feel very sympathetic towards the monster he has only turned out to be the despised and hated creature that he now is due to the actions of others. Both characters make convincing cases in an attempt to gain sympathy from the reader. Both are sinned against, (Victor has his family killed by his own creation and his creation itself is abandoned and despised) and it is a matter of opinion who the victim actually is. The reasons behind Victor deciding to create life in the first place could be seen as an important factor. Was he trying to be the first person to create life in this way to satisfy his ego or was he doing it for the good of human kind? Personally I have sympathy for both Victor and the monster. But if I had to choose one it would be the monster, because it was born an adult and never got chance to learn right from wrong and it had no parents to teach it anything nor no friends. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section.

Demographic Analysis of Software Piracy Users

Demographic Analysis of Software Piracy Users Software Piracy: Most common factors that influence the intention to use among college students in Selangor, Malaysia Abstract Software piracy is one of the worst problems facing the software industry, and the piracy rate around the world is rising and in 2008 alone software industry lost more than US$ 5.3 billion due to software piracy, and in the same time frame Malaysian software industry lost around US$ 368 million. Many previous researches concluded that software piracy is common among college students, preventive and deterrents techniques were no effective in combating the piracy problem, therefore there is a great urgency to identify the factors that leads to software piracy in order to formulate better strategies to overcome the problem. This research identified six variables that influence the intention of college students to use pirated software; they are Gender, Age, Value Consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty seeking. A survey was conducted with students who are attending colleges in Selangor, Malaysia, with a total of 247 respondents participated in the survey. The study found out that Value consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty seeking are the factors that has significant relationship with intention to use pirated software, however gender and age was not found to be significant factors that influence the intention to use pirated software. 1.0 Chapter 1: Introduction: Software piracy can be considered as robbery, an infringement of copyrights, and anything that is copyrighted can be pirated and almost anything worth copying is worth pirating (Honick and Craig, 2005). Independent study sponsored by Business software Alliance (BSA) shows that software piracy is the worst problem that software industry faced, BSA defines software piracy as the unauthorized copying or distribution of softwares. When the end users purchase the software they do not become the owner of the product, however they have the rights to use the software under the terms and conditions oppose by the copyright owner of the software. According to Microsoft there are 5 basic type of piracy, 1- End user copying: Here individuals or organizations copy and distribute unlicensed copies of the software or purchase a licensed copy and use beyond the allowed limits. 2- Hard disk loading: this is practiced by computer manufacturers who use a legal copy of a software to install as many PC they want and sold to end users who are not aware of the wrong doing 3- Counterfeiting: software and its packaging are illegally produced in a large scale. 4- Online: Online piracy occurs when the end user download the software from an online source without the permission of the copyright owner. 5- License misuse: software distributed with a discount rates for the high-volume customers, computer manufactures, and academic institutions that then redistribute these software to others who are not qualified for the software. 1.1 Background of the problem TA study conducted by BSA (200X), shows that piracy rates went up from 38% in 2007 to 41% in 2008 worldwide, however the encouraging news is that among the 110 countries the study was conducted, in 57 counties (52%) the piracy went down and in one third of the countries piracy remained unchanged (35%).The monetary losses for software vendors grew from US $ 5.1 billion to US $ 5.3 billion from 2007 to 2008. Lowest piracy countries according to the BSA(200x), research were the United States Luxemburg, New Zealand and Japan, at around 20% and highest piracy rates were among Armenia, Georgia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe around 90%. Research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC 200X) shows that, if piracy is lowered 10% in four years it will create more that 600,000 jobs worldwide. Robert Holleyman, the president and CEO of Business software Alliance stated that in 2008 more that 40% of the software installed worldwide was obtained illegally and cost US $ 50 billion of losses to the software industry. For every dollar of the software sold another 3 or 4 dollars are paid to the local IT farms, in other words software piracy means less jobs in Information Technology Industry, as per IDC (200x) study if piracy is reduced 10%, governments will generate more that US $ 24 billion in revenue without increasing tax. According to Rothken (1998) buyers of legitimate software has to pay an additional 15 dollars to every 100 dollars spent on software, meaning software add 15% to the price of legitimate software because of software piracy. Software piracy will also increase cybercrime and security problems, a study conducted by IDC in 2006 shows that more than 29% of the websites and 61% of peer-to-peer sites offering illegal software infect the computers with virus and other types of identity theft tools. Software piracy is somewhat out of controlled in the real world, Microsoft investigators found pirated software in the computers of a police department who were investigating piracy, and also one out of three software used in business are pirated ( Carbon 1997). The population of Malaysia is estimated at 28 million and spends more than US$ 4.6 billion in information technology, which is 2.9% of the annual GDP. There are more than 6,900 companies employing 222,100 employers in the field of information technology (BSA, 2007). 1.2 Problem statement In Malaysia piracy increased by 1% (from 58% in 2007 to 59% in 2008) and it terms of financial losses, Malaysia lost over US $ 368 million compare to US $ 311 million in 2007. If piracy could be brought down to 10% in next 4 years (2008-2011), Malaysia could create an additional 2,600 jobs, financial gain of US $ 660 million to Malaysian software companies and US $ 144 million in tax revenue for federal, regional and local governments (BSA, 2007). This research aim to find the common factors that influences the intention of college students in Malaysia to use pirated software, as finding these factors will help to combat the issue of software piracy more efficiently. 1.3 Objective of the study: Software piracy has become a worldwide dilemma due to the financial and economic losses the software industry and governments has to face, also extra cost, viruses and other identity theft problems the consumers have to bear. For an issue that has gone out of control, like software piracy, its important to identify grass root problems. In the case of software piracy it is important to identify what factors influence the intention of individuals to use pirated software; this will help the software industry to come up with better strategies in the fight against software piracy. TAs colleges and universities are identified as breeding grounds for software piracy by Hinduja (2007,) and use of pirated software is a common problem in universities and which even happens inside classrooms (Kurger 2003) and college students believe its ethical to use pirated software (Cohen and Cornwell, 1989), its important to find what factors that influence these behaviors in college students in Malaysian context. 1.4 Purpose of the study: TA study conducted by Cohen and Cornwell (1989) shows that software piracy is acceptable among the college students, research done by Hinduja (2007) illustrate that colleges and universities are breeding grounds for software piracy. Protecting the intellectual property is a key factor for the copyright holder and for the consumers as well. The financial loss the software companies are facing is due to the casual attitude of the consumers towards intellectual property rights (SIIA KPMG 2001). Unauthorized distribution and use of software without copyright owners permission is illegal. Number of legal cases conforms that copy right and patent laws apply to computer software. In the case of Whelan Association Inc v. Jaslow Dental Laboratories, Inc (1986), Lotus Development Corp v. Paperback software Intl (1990), Plains Cotton Corporative International Inc v. Altai Inc (1992) court ruled that intellectual properties were protected (Lau, 2006). According to the Malaysian copy right act 1987, if an individual or a corporation was found in position with unauthorized software, the user may face criminal charges, they will face a fine of not exceeding RM 10,000 for each infringing copy, or prison sentence of not exceeding five years, or both. Preventives and deterrents are the commonly used techniques in the fight against software piracy (Gopal and Sanders, 1997), preventives makes it difficult for software crackers to crack the software by increasing the security features. The idea behind the preventive concept is that, when it becomes difficult to crack, the software hackers will find cracking softwares are hard and eventually give up. Deterrent uses the laws and regulation to prevent software piracy. The truth is preventives and deterrents are not so effective, the higher security that is placed in the softwares are checked by more advanced tools, its only a matter of time for software crackers to crack the security codes, the fact that deterrents are not working can be seen from the fact that only 1-5% of the computer abuse is detected. This proves the need to find the influential factors that derives individuals towards software piracy, understanding these factors will help to formulate better strategies to deal with the problem of software piracy. 1.5 Justification of the study: There have been number of studies conducted in relation with software piracy among the college students, however a study focused on college students in Malaysia is not found, Since Malaysia also looses enormous amount of revenue and jobs as a result of software piracy, and the fact that colleges and universities are identified as the breeding ground of software piracy and these are the people who are going to be professionals tomorrow, its important to identify the factors the influence the intention of college students in Malaysia to use pirated software. Since most of the current studies are conducted outside Malaysia, there might be some significant difference in the behavior of the college students in Malaysia compare to previous research done in other countries. As there are no researches done on college students in Malaysia, it will be difficult to guaranty that those factors brought in by other literature can we applied to college students in Malaysia. T 1.6 Research questions This study aims to answer following questions. Will factors like Value consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty Seeking influence the intention to use pirated software among college student in Malaysia? Will demographic factors like Age and gender influence the intention to use pirated software among college students in Malaysia? 1.7 Organization of the study: This study has five chapters; the chapter one includes the background of the problem, problem statement, objective and purpose of the research, justification and research questions. The second chapter is a Literature review, which talks about different theories related to behavior and ethics, findings of the previous literature and few models used in articles writing in the subject of software piracy are discussed. Third chapter is the methodology, which talks about the research philosophy, purpose, approach, and strategy and sample selection used in this study. The forth chapter talks about the findings of the study and the fifth chapter is a conclusion of this study, along with the limitation of the study and further research suggestions. 2.0 Chapter 2: Literature Review First part of this chapter reviews different theories related to behavior and ethics, particularly the Theory of Reasoned Actions by Fishbein and Ajzen, Theory of planned behavior by Ajzen and theory of moral development by Kohlberg were discussed, which will be useful in understanding the factors influence an individuals intention to use pirated software. Second part of this chapter is focused on the findings of the previous literatures, specifically the literatures related to factors the influence individuals to use pirated software will be examined and finally the models used in some literatures will be used to explain software piracy. 2.1 Theory of reasoned action Theory of Reasoned Action, developed by Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein (1980) were used to explain why an individual behaves in a certain manner. The theory is based on the assumption that humans are rational and information available to them will be used systematically. TRA uses attitude and norms to predict behavioral intentions, that is when attitude leads to certain behavior but the relevant norms suggest something else, then both factors influence the behavior. The Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) identifies that behavior is a function of intention and intention is a function of both attitude and subjective norms. Theory of Reasoned Action is an useful tool used in predicting certain behaviors, its has been applied in predicting number of behaviors like dental hygiene, smoking, breast cancer examinations and the use of seatbelts. (Change, 1998) Enker (1987) examined how attitude and normative belief is related to cheating and he found out that theory of reasoned action was a useful tool in understanding moral behavior of an individual. The motive behind explaining the theory of reasoned action is to understand the sequence of actions that leads to a certain behavior such as software piracy. 2.2 Theory of planned behavior In 1985, Ajzen concluded that Theory of Reasoned Action was not fully completed; he explained that TRA was insufficient, as it does not give consideration to situations where behavior is not under the individuals control. To address these restrictions in TRA, Ajzen developed the Theory of Planned behavior (TPB), which was an extension of Theory of Reasoned Actions The new model proposed by Ajzen included the Perceived Behavior Control (PBC) which was not found in TRA. PBC could be easily measured, and identifies the individuals belief on the difficulty level in performing a certain behavior (Ajzen and Madden, 1986). The Theory of Planned Behavior states that an intention to behave in a particular fashion originates from persons attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Similar to the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used is in wide range of situation to predict a behavior (Flanny and May, 2000) Chang (1998) tested the validity of both Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned behavior in software piracy. The research was conducted to see the capacity of TRA to explain software piracy behavioral intentions and to see whether TPB can predict software piracy more accurately than TRA. Chang (1998) concluded that perceived behavioral control is the most important factor that influences individuals to used pirated software. Individuals who behave unethically most of the time do not have the full control of the situation. Opportunities must be available to the individual for him to use pirated software. 2.3 Kohlbergs theory of moral development Kohlberg (1969) developed the theory of moral development, which consists of 3 level of moral development and each level contains 2 stages. The concept behind the moral development stages is that, an individual mature morally when they mature intellectually. Preconvention is the first level of moral development, this is the beginning of the moral development process, and in the first stage of preconvention level (Punishment and obedience orientation) an individual will have full respect for the authority and only concentrate on avoiding any punishment. At the second stage of the first level (reward orientation) an individual will focus on achieving personal benefits such and rewards. At this stage an individual will concentrate more on satisfying his or her own needs rather than fulfilling the needs of others or society as a whole. Conventional is the second level of moral development, in this level individuals focus more on a group, this is the level where peer pressure begins to influence the decision of an individual. At the first stage of this level an individual will think in terms of social convention, someone is labeled good or bad based on familial and social norms. If individuals turn to second stage of level two, they mature morally and focus on law and regulations, at this stage the focus is on maintaining social order, so that societies can function in an orderly manner. Post conventional is the final level of the moral development proposed by Kohlberg, if an individual reaches the first stage of post conventional level one should be able emphasize on what could be legally binding, however one should be able to understands that laws can be amended to meet the social demand. When an individual is at the final stage of moral development or the universal ethical principle orientation individuals see himself as a judge for the moral problems. Individuals at this stage are more concern about human rights, justices and equity in decision making. According to Kohlberg, most people are stuck at the conventional level, authority orientation stage, where law and order is the key aspect of moral decision making. A study conducted by Lane and Lane (1996) on the subject of softlifting (pirating software for personal use) found out that many students who participated in their study remained in the conventional level, authority orientation stage, of the moral development, based on their research they concluded that moral reasons behind software piracy was less important to the student compare to the benefit from softlifting. 2.4 Software piracy literature 2.4.1 Age Prior research conduct on software piracy shows that age had a significant influence on software piracy, hence younger responded were found more acceptable to use pirated software (Al-Rafee and Cronan 2006; Peace 1997 and Gopal and Sanders 1997). Research conducted by Liebowitz (2004) on piracy in the music industry showed that 41% of internet users between the age group of 18 29 download music illegally compare to 21% in the age group of 33-44. However a study conducted by Kini et al, (2004) concluded that age has no significant influence on software piracy. 2.4.2 Gender Kini et al.., (2004), suggest that female students have a higher morality than male students, thus female students use pirated software less than their male counterparts. Ford and Richardson in their research in 1994 also concluded that females are more ethical than males; therefore females will use pirated software less than males, as software piracy can be considered unethical. Even thought the research conducted by Weng et al, (2005) explained that gender was not a significant factor in the behavior to use pirated software, and one possible factor that researches shows male use pirated software is because they are more risk takers than female, this explanation seconds the research done by Solomon and OBrien, (1990) Banjerjee (1992) and Sim et al (1996),as they concluded that gender was practically accountable to the decision of an individual to use pirated software. 2.4.3 Consequences of using pirated software Using pirated software could be costly for an organization, even thought their employees used the pirated software without the knowledge of the top management, the management could be held liable for the action on their employees (Robinson and Reithel.., 1994). However individuals do not see the use of pirated software as a crime or unethical behavior (Im and Van Epps, 1991, Reid et al.., 1992). Also risk of been prosecuted was not identified as a significant factor in the study conducted by Hsu and Shiue (2008), because in reality its highly unlikely to get caught and been prosecuted for using pirated software. Kini et al, (2004) suggest that there is lack of recognition and enforcement to intellectual property laws, making software piracy a common phenomenon. 2.4.4 Income and economic conditions related to software piracy The study conducted by Gopal and Sanders, (2000) and Yang et al.., (2009) indicated that ability for an individual to purchase the original softwares is related to his or her income. Countries with higher Gross National Income (GNI) such as United States, Japan and Luxemburg has a lower piracy rate (less than 21%) compare to Georgia, Bangladesh, and Armenia, where piracy rate is more than 92% (BSA, 2008), and for these poor countries software piracy rate remains an economic issue (Moores, 2008). Individuals who earns a high income tend to use pirated software lesser than the individuals who earns a lower income (Wee et al.., 1995). Lamayem et al.., (2004) also backed this concept by stating that economic growth declines the piracy rate in a country; however some individuals might continue to use pirated software due to hobbits. Yang et al, (2009), also stressed that economic improvement tend to reduce the use of software piracy. 2.4.4.1 Top 10 high and low piracy rates Countries with high piracy rate % Countries with low piracy rate % Georgia 95 United States 20 Bangladesh 92 Japan 21 Armenia 92 Luxembourg 21 Zimbabwe 92 New Zealand 22 Sri Lanka 90 Austria 24 Azerbaijan 90 Belgium 25 Moldova 90 Denmark 25 Yemen 89 Sweden 25 Libya 87 Switzerland 25 Table 2.2: Top 10 High and Low piracy rate Source: BSA piracy report 2008 Moores (2008) in his study on â€Å"An Analysis of the impact of economic Wealth and National Culture on the rise and fall of software piracy rates† found out that Software Piracy Rate (SPR) in a country is related to its economic wellbeing and Individualism-collectivism (IDV) of a country. 2.4.5 Cost of original software At an individual level, the cost of original software is considered as prime factor that influences the decision of an individual to use pirated software or not (Cheng et al, 1997). Moores and Dhillion, (2000), Rawlinson et al, (2007,) in their research found out that most university students do not have much discretionary income with which to purchase original software, they also point out that reduction of the price of the original software will reduce the software piracy rate. Studies conducted by many researchers in the subject of software piracy identifies that financial gain that an individual gets from using pirated software is the most common reason to use pirated software (Cheng et al..,1997, Moores and Dhillion, 2000; Traphagan Griffith, 1998; Wee et al.., 1995). According to Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006) many users believed that original softwares are overpriced, this concept was also supported by the studies conducted by Albert-Miller (1999);Block et al.., (1993); Cheng et al.., (1997). 2.4.6 Software piracy in an ethical context Banerjee et al.., (1998,) developed a research framework based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to model the ethical behavior intentions of Information system (IS) professionals and found that individual and situational characteristics do influence ethical behavior intentions. Loch and Conger (1996) in their study found that attitude and social norms play an important role in ethical decision making situation which can be related to the use of pirated software. Researches done on the subject of software piracy found that software piracy was a normative and accepted behavior, (Cohen and Cornwell 1989), and many individuals do not consider software piracy as a moral issue and use of pirated software is widely common among the business students (Soloman and OBrien 1990) Simpson et al.., (1994,) examined factors influencing softlifting, and identified five factors that influence and individuals decision making process, they are, stimulus to act, socio- cultural factors, legal factors, personal factors, situational factors. They found out that personal and situational factor influence the softlifting behavior. Thong and Yap .., (1998,) also attempted to explain soft lifting behavior using ethical decision making theory (the theory suggest that individuals are influence by deontological[1]F and teleological[2]F consequences of behavior) study showed both were found to influence the decision to use pirated software. Peace et al.., (2003,) generated a software piracy model using Theory of Planned behavior (TPB) as a framework to explain the intention to use pirated software. The study concluded that attitude (which is affected by the cost of original software, punishment severity and punishment certainty), subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were found to be significant factors that influence the intention of and individual to use pirated software. Zhang et al.., 2009 used the general theory of crime and deterrence theory to explain behavior that leads to digital piracy and they found out that only risk taking and punishment certainty leads to digital piracy. Simpson et al.., (1994,) found out that, Academic institutions are increasingly including ethical education in their curriculum. However many studies done on software piracy suggest that ethical education in academic institution had no or minimal effect on the intention of the students to use pirated software (Simpson et al.., 1994; Taylor and Shim.., 1993). Even though, individuals who felt a moral obligation or guilt towards software piracy have less intention to use pirated software (Cronan and Al-Rafee.., 2007). Logsdon et al.., (1994) and Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006) in their studies tested the assumption that individuals with higher level of moral development, are less likely to use pirated software, however they did not find a strong relationship between level of moral judgment and attitude towards using software piracy. The researchers also warn the software developers that even individuals with higher moral reasoning may engage in software piracy. Its believed that culture of a country influences the development of an individuals moral judgment and on understanding of moral intensity regarding software piracy. Christensen and Eining (1990) indicated that individual do not see piracy as inappropriate behavior and they do not believe their friends and superiors believe its inappropriate behavior. Researches concludes that use of pirated softwares in colleges and universities are more common than the general public (Kini et al, 2004). A study conducted by Taylor and Shim (1993) found out that professors use pirated softwares more than business executives. With a sample size of 243 college students , Kuo and Hsu (2001) conducted a research based on Banduras social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1982) and they discovered that self-efficacy was an important element in software piracy, subject with higher self-efficacy were more likely to engage in piracy. The famous psychologist Albert Bandura defines self-efficacy as â€Å"over belief in our ability to succeed in a specific situation†. Kini et al (2004) studied the cultural differences between the students of United States and Thailand in relation to software piracy, and they found out that students of United States has higher moral understanding towards software piracy compare to the students in Thailand. Swinyard et al (1990) in their research suggested that Asians have a more casual attitude towards software piracy than Americans, they are more likely to copy or buy software and less likely to criticize anyone who uses pirated software. Ferrell and Gresham (1985) emphasized the importance of peer group working supervisors in affecting ethical behavior. Christensen and Eining (1991), identified that the decision to use pirated software are influenced by the attitudes of friends and organization, these researchers also indicated that students do not perceive software piracy as inappropriate since they also believe their friends and superiors share this same view. 2.4.7 Problem of software piracy Softwares were the first product thats copied electronically in a large scale (Swinyard et al.., 1990). According to Yang, (2009) software piracy is a huge problem for policy makers and consumers alike, due to the uncertainty involving cross border conflicts, business losses and consumer exposing to virus and different kind of identity theft. McDonald and Roberts (1994) also considered software piracy as a very serious problem though out the world and the reason that it has become so hard to deal with this problem is the easiness in duplicating a copyrighted product. Tang and Farn (2005) concluded that supply to the pirated software will exists as long as there is a demand for pirated software, enforcement of laws and regulation and awareness programs may minimize the piracy rates, but it will not stop people from using pirated software. 2.4.8 Software piracy from a different angle Researchers who try to take the use of software piracy positively suggests that, software piracy can be seen as a form of product sampling, and that sampling can aid in the diffusion of a good (Gupta et al, 2004).As per Mahajan and Muller 1995, the success of excel over lotus 1, 2, and 3 was due to the high tolerance level towards software piracy. Givon et al, (1995), in their paper, â€Å"Software Piracy: Estimation of lost sales and impact on software diffusion† used a diffusion modeling approach to estimate the sale of software piracy, and they concluded software piracy creates shadow diffusion of the software same as the diffusion of original software in the market, the shadow diffusion is a major influential factor on the diffusion of the original software. They argue that the sellers of the pirated softwares may influence the potential buyers to adopt the pirated software, and some of these adopters might even purchase the original software. However, Solomon and OBrien.., (1990,) had a different view; they think software piracy will de-motivate the software developers to bring quality products to the market. Also the consumers have to pay a higher price to use original software; because the price of the legitimate software is inflated in order to make up to the loss of revenue from software piracy (Eining and christensen.., 1991; Taylor and Shim, 1993,). In the fight against software piracy, Germany has started enforcing a charge on every CD burner that is sold to compensate the loss of revenue due to piracy (Cronan and Al-Rafee.., 2007,) 2. 5 Models used in literatures of software piracy In this section, previous research models are discussed in order to explain software piracy. Five models related to software piracy will be examined here, as shown below. 2.5.2 Tim Goles et al Model Tim Goles et al.., 2007 proposed a model to identify the intention to softlift, their model is shown below: The model shows that there is a significant positive relationship between Perceived usefulness, past behavior, technical personal identity, and risk taking personal identity towards attitude to softlift. And negative relation between awareness of the law, moral personal obligation, and legal personal identity towards attitude to softlift. Furthermore the past behavior and attitude towards softlifting has a positive relation with the persons intention Demographic Analysis of Software Piracy Users Demographic Analysis of Software Piracy Users Software Piracy: Most common factors that influence the intention to use among college students in Selangor, Malaysia Abstract Software piracy is one of the worst problems facing the software industry, and the piracy rate around the world is rising and in 2008 alone software industry lost more than US$ 5.3 billion due to software piracy, and in the same time frame Malaysian software industry lost around US$ 368 million. Many previous researches concluded that software piracy is common among college students, preventive and deterrents techniques were no effective in combating the piracy problem, therefore there is a great urgency to identify the factors that leads to software piracy in order to formulate better strategies to overcome the problem. This research identified six variables that influence the intention of college students to use pirated software; they are Gender, Age, Value Consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty seeking. A survey was conducted with students who are attending colleges in Selangor, Malaysia, with a total of 247 respondents participated in the survey. The study found out that Value consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty seeking are the factors that has significant relationship with intention to use pirated software, however gender and age was not found to be significant factors that influence the intention to use pirated software. 1.0 Chapter 1: Introduction: Software piracy can be considered as robbery, an infringement of copyrights, and anything that is copyrighted can be pirated and almost anything worth copying is worth pirating (Honick and Craig, 2005). Independent study sponsored by Business software Alliance (BSA) shows that software piracy is the worst problem that software industry faced, BSA defines software piracy as the unauthorized copying or distribution of softwares. When the end users purchase the software they do not become the owner of the product, however they have the rights to use the software under the terms and conditions oppose by the copyright owner of the software. According to Microsoft there are 5 basic type of piracy, 1- End user copying: Here individuals or organizations copy and distribute unlicensed copies of the software or purchase a licensed copy and use beyond the allowed limits. 2- Hard disk loading: this is practiced by computer manufacturers who use a legal copy of a software to install as many PC they want and sold to end users who are not aware of the wrong doing 3- Counterfeiting: software and its packaging are illegally produced in a large scale. 4- Online: Online piracy occurs when the end user download the software from an online source without the permission of the copyright owner. 5- License misuse: software distributed with a discount rates for the high-volume customers, computer manufactures, and academic institutions that then redistribute these software to others who are not qualified for the software. 1.1 Background of the problem TA study conducted by BSA (200X), shows that piracy rates went up from 38% in 2007 to 41% in 2008 worldwide, however the encouraging news is that among the 110 countries the study was conducted, in 57 counties (52%) the piracy went down and in one third of the countries piracy remained unchanged (35%).The monetary losses for software vendors grew from US $ 5.1 billion to US $ 5.3 billion from 2007 to 2008. Lowest piracy countries according to the BSA(200x), research were the United States Luxemburg, New Zealand and Japan, at around 20% and highest piracy rates were among Armenia, Georgia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe around 90%. Research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC 200X) shows that, if piracy is lowered 10% in four years it will create more that 600,000 jobs worldwide. Robert Holleyman, the president and CEO of Business software Alliance stated that in 2008 more that 40% of the software installed worldwide was obtained illegally and cost US $ 50 billion of losses to the software industry. For every dollar of the software sold another 3 or 4 dollars are paid to the local IT farms, in other words software piracy means less jobs in Information Technology Industry, as per IDC (200x) study if piracy is reduced 10%, governments will generate more that US $ 24 billion in revenue without increasing tax. According to Rothken (1998) buyers of legitimate software has to pay an additional 15 dollars to every 100 dollars spent on software, meaning software add 15% to the price of legitimate software because of software piracy. Software piracy will also increase cybercrime and security problems, a study conducted by IDC in 2006 shows that more than 29% of the websites and 61% of peer-to-peer sites offering illegal software infect the computers with virus and other types of identity theft tools. Software piracy is somewhat out of controlled in the real world, Microsoft investigators found pirated software in the computers of a police department who were investigating piracy, and also one out of three software used in business are pirated ( Carbon 1997). The population of Malaysia is estimated at 28 million and spends more than US$ 4.6 billion in information technology, which is 2.9% of the annual GDP. There are more than 6,900 companies employing 222,100 employers in the field of information technology (BSA, 2007). 1.2 Problem statement In Malaysia piracy increased by 1% (from 58% in 2007 to 59% in 2008) and it terms of financial losses, Malaysia lost over US $ 368 million compare to US $ 311 million in 2007. If piracy could be brought down to 10% in next 4 years (2008-2011), Malaysia could create an additional 2,600 jobs, financial gain of US $ 660 million to Malaysian software companies and US $ 144 million in tax revenue for federal, regional and local governments (BSA, 2007). This research aim to find the common factors that influences the intention of college students in Malaysia to use pirated software, as finding these factors will help to combat the issue of software piracy more efficiently. 1.3 Objective of the study: Software piracy has become a worldwide dilemma due to the financial and economic losses the software industry and governments has to face, also extra cost, viruses and other identity theft problems the consumers have to bear. For an issue that has gone out of control, like software piracy, its important to identify grass root problems. In the case of software piracy it is important to identify what factors influence the intention of individuals to use pirated software; this will help the software industry to come up with better strategies in the fight against software piracy. TAs colleges and universities are identified as breeding grounds for software piracy by Hinduja (2007,) and use of pirated software is a common problem in universities and which even happens inside classrooms (Kurger 2003) and college students believe its ethical to use pirated software (Cohen and Cornwell, 1989), its important to find what factors that influence these behaviors in college students in Malaysian context. 1.4 Purpose of the study: TA study conducted by Cohen and Cornwell (1989) shows that software piracy is acceptable among the college students, research done by Hinduja (2007) illustrate that colleges and universities are breeding grounds for software piracy. Protecting the intellectual property is a key factor for the copyright holder and for the consumers as well. The financial loss the software companies are facing is due to the casual attitude of the consumers towards intellectual property rights (SIIA KPMG 2001). Unauthorized distribution and use of software without copyright owners permission is illegal. Number of legal cases conforms that copy right and patent laws apply to computer software. In the case of Whelan Association Inc v. Jaslow Dental Laboratories, Inc (1986), Lotus Development Corp v. Paperback software Intl (1990), Plains Cotton Corporative International Inc v. Altai Inc (1992) court ruled that intellectual properties were protected (Lau, 2006). According to the Malaysian copy right act 1987, if an individual or a corporation was found in position with unauthorized software, the user may face criminal charges, they will face a fine of not exceeding RM 10,000 for each infringing copy, or prison sentence of not exceeding five years, or both. Preventives and deterrents are the commonly used techniques in the fight against software piracy (Gopal and Sanders, 1997), preventives makes it difficult for software crackers to crack the software by increasing the security features. The idea behind the preventive concept is that, when it becomes difficult to crack, the software hackers will find cracking softwares are hard and eventually give up. Deterrent uses the laws and regulation to prevent software piracy. The truth is preventives and deterrents are not so effective, the higher security that is placed in the softwares are checked by more advanced tools, its only a matter of time for software crackers to crack the security codes, the fact that deterrents are not working can be seen from the fact that only 1-5% of the computer abuse is detected. This proves the need to find the influential factors that derives individuals towards software piracy, understanding these factors will help to formulate better strategies to deal with the problem of software piracy. 1.5 Justification of the study: There have been number of studies conducted in relation with software piracy among the college students, however a study focused on college students in Malaysia is not found, Since Malaysia also looses enormous amount of revenue and jobs as a result of software piracy, and the fact that colleges and universities are identified as the breeding ground of software piracy and these are the people who are going to be professionals tomorrow, its important to identify the factors the influence the intention of college students in Malaysia to use pirated software. Since most of the current studies are conducted outside Malaysia, there might be some significant difference in the behavior of the college students in Malaysia compare to previous research done in other countries. As there are no researches done on college students in Malaysia, it will be difficult to guaranty that those factors brought in by other literature can we applied to college students in Malaysia. T 1.6 Research questions This study aims to answer following questions. Will factors like Value consciousness, Attitude, Peer pressure and Novelty Seeking influence the intention to use pirated software among college student in Malaysia? Will demographic factors like Age and gender influence the intention to use pirated software among college students in Malaysia? 1.7 Organization of the study: This study has five chapters; the chapter one includes the background of the problem, problem statement, objective and purpose of the research, justification and research questions. The second chapter is a Literature review, which talks about different theories related to behavior and ethics, findings of the previous literature and few models used in articles writing in the subject of software piracy are discussed. Third chapter is the methodology, which talks about the research philosophy, purpose, approach, and strategy and sample selection used in this study. The forth chapter talks about the findings of the study and the fifth chapter is a conclusion of this study, along with the limitation of the study and further research suggestions. 2.0 Chapter 2: Literature Review First part of this chapter reviews different theories related to behavior and ethics, particularly the Theory of Reasoned Actions by Fishbein and Ajzen, Theory of planned behavior by Ajzen and theory of moral development by Kohlberg were discussed, which will be useful in understanding the factors influence an individuals intention to use pirated software. Second part of this chapter is focused on the findings of the previous literatures, specifically the literatures related to factors the influence individuals to use pirated software will be examined and finally the models used in some literatures will be used to explain software piracy. 2.1 Theory of reasoned action Theory of Reasoned Action, developed by Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein (1980) were used to explain why an individual behaves in a certain manner. The theory is based on the assumption that humans are rational and information available to them will be used systematically. TRA uses attitude and norms to predict behavioral intentions, that is when attitude leads to certain behavior but the relevant norms suggest something else, then both factors influence the behavior. The Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) identifies that behavior is a function of intention and intention is a function of both attitude and subjective norms. Theory of Reasoned Action is an useful tool used in predicting certain behaviors, its has been applied in predicting number of behaviors like dental hygiene, smoking, breast cancer examinations and the use of seatbelts. (Change, 1998) Enker (1987) examined how attitude and normative belief is related to cheating and he found out that theory of reasoned action was a useful tool in understanding moral behavior of an individual. The motive behind explaining the theory of reasoned action is to understand the sequence of actions that leads to a certain behavior such as software piracy. 2.2 Theory of planned behavior In 1985, Ajzen concluded that Theory of Reasoned Action was not fully completed; he explained that TRA was insufficient, as it does not give consideration to situations where behavior is not under the individuals control. To address these restrictions in TRA, Ajzen developed the Theory of Planned behavior (TPB), which was an extension of Theory of Reasoned Actions The new model proposed by Ajzen included the Perceived Behavior Control (PBC) which was not found in TRA. PBC could be easily measured, and identifies the individuals belief on the difficulty level in performing a certain behavior (Ajzen and Madden, 1986). The Theory of Planned Behavior states that an intention to behave in a particular fashion originates from persons attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Similar to the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used is in wide range of situation to predict a behavior (Flanny and May, 2000) Chang (1998) tested the validity of both Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned behavior in software piracy. The research was conducted to see the capacity of TRA to explain software piracy behavioral intentions and to see whether TPB can predict software piracy more accurately than TRA. Chang (1998) concluded that perceived behavioral control is the most important factor that influences individuals to used pirated software. Individuals who behave unethically most of the time do not have the full control of the situation. Opportunities must be available to the individual for him to use pirated software. 2.3 Kohlbergs theory of moral development Kohlberg (1969) developed the theory of moral development, which consists of 3 level of moral development and each level contains 2 stages. The concept behind the moral development stages is that, an individual mature morally when they mature intellectually. Preconvention is the first level of moral development, this is the beginning of the moral development process, and in the first stage of preconvention level (Punishment and obedience orientation) an individual will have full respect for the authority and only concentrate on avoiding any punishment. At the second stage of the first level (reward orientation) an individual will focus on achieving personal benefits such and rewards. At this stage an individual will concentrate more on satisfying his or her own needs rather than fulfilling the needs of others or society as a whole. Conventional is the second level of moral development, in this level individuals focus more on a group, this is the level where peer pressure begins to influence the decision of an individual. At the first stage of this level an individual will think in terms of social convention, someone is labeled good or bad based on familial and social norms. If individuals turn to second stage of level two, they mature morally and focus on law and regulations, at this stage the focus is on maintaining social order, so that societies can function in an orderly manner. Post conventional is the final level of the moral development proposed by Kohlberg, if an individual reaches the first stage of post conventional level one should be able emphasize on what could be legally binding, however one should be able to understands that laws can be amended to meet the social demand. When an individual is at the final stage of moral development or the universal ethical principle orientation individuals see himself as a judge for the moral problems. Individuals at this stage are more concern about human rights, justices and equity in decision making. According to Kohlberg, most people are stuck at the conventional level, authority orientation stage, where law and order is the key aspect of moral decision making. A study conducted by Lane and Lane (1996) on the subject of softlifting (pirating software for personal use) found out that many students who participated in their study remained in the conventional level, authority orientation stage, of the moral development, based on their research they concluded that moral reasons behind software piracy was less important to the student compare to the benefit from softlifting. 2.4 Software piracy literature 2.4.1 Age Prior research conduct on software piracy shows that age had a significant influence on software piracy, hence younger responded were found more acceptable to use pirated software (Al-Rafee and Cronan 2006; Peace 1997 and Gopal and Sanders 1997). Research conducted by Liebowitz (2004) on piracy in the music industry showed that 41% of internet users between the age group of 18 29 download music illegally compare to 21% in the age group of 33-44. However a study conducted by Kini et al, (2004) concluded that age has no significant influence on software piracy. 2.4.2 Gender Kini et al.., (2004), suggest that female students have a higher morality than male students, thus female students use pirated software less than their male counterparts. Ford and Richardson in their research in 1994 also concluded that females are more ethical than males; therefore females will use pirated software less than males, as software piracy can be considered unethical. Even thought the research conducted by Weng et al, (2005) explained that gender was not a significant factor in the behavior to use pirated software, and one possible factor that researches shows male use pirated software is because they are more risk takers than female, this explanation seconds the research done by Solomon and OBrien, (1990) Banjerjee (1992) and Sim et al (1996),as they concluded that gender was practically accountable to the decision of an individual to use pirated software. 2.4.3 Consequences of using pirated software Using pirated software could be costly for an organization, even thought their employees used the pirated software without the knowledge of the top management, the management could be held liable for the action on their employees (Robinson and Reithel.., 1994). However individuals do not see the use of pirated software as a crime or unethical behavior (Im and Van Epps, 1991, Reid et al.., 1992). Also risk of been prosecuted was not identified as a significant factor in the study conducted by Hsu and Shiue (2008), because in reality its highly unlikely to get caught and been prosecuted for using pirated software. Kini et al, (2004) suggest that there is lack of recognition and enforcement to intellectual property laws, making software piracy a common phenomenon. 2.4.4 Income and economic conditions related to software piracy The study conducted by Gopal and Sanders, (2000) and Yang et al.., (2009) indicated that ability for an individual to purchase the original softwares is related to his or her income. Countries with higher Gross National Income (GNI) such as United States, Japan and Luxemburg has a lower piracy rate (less than 21%) compare to Georgia, Bangladesh, and Armenia, where piracy rate is more than 92% (BSA, 2008), and for these poor countries software piracy rate remains an economic issue (Moores, 2008). Individuals who earns a high income tend to use pirated software lesser than the individuals who earns a lower income (Wee et al.., 1995). Lamayem et al.., (2004) also backed this concept by stating that economic growth declines the piracy rate in a country; however some individuals might continue to use pirated software due to hobbits. Yang et al, (2009), also stressed that economic improvement tend to reduce the use of software piracy. 2.4.4.1 Top 10 high and low piracy rates Countries with high piracy rate % Countries with low piracy rate % Georgia 95 United States 20 Bangladesh 92 Japan 21 Armenia 92 Luxembourg 21 Zimbabwe 92 New Zealand 22 Sri Lanka 90 Austria 24 Azerbaijan 90 Belgium 25 Moldova 90 Denmark 25 Yemen 89 Sweden 25 Libya 87 Switzerland 25 Table 2.2: Top 10 High and Low piracy rate Source: BSA piracy report 2008 Moores (2008) in his study on â€Å"An Analysis of the impact of economic Wealth and National Culture on the rise and fall of software piracy rates† found out that Software Piracy Rate (SPR) in a country is related to its economic wellbeing and Individualism-collectivism (IDV) of a country. 2.4.5 Cost of original software At an individual level, the cost of original software is considered as prime factor that influences the decision of an individual to use pirated software or not (Cheng et al, 1997). Moores and Dhillion, (2000), Rawlinson et al, (2007,) in their research found out that most university students do not have much discretionary income with which to purchase original software, they also point out that reduction of the price of the original software will reduce the software piracy rate. Studies conducted by many researchers in the subject of software piracy identifies that financial gain that an individual gets from using pirated software is the most common reason to use pirated software (Cheng et al..,1997, Moores and Dhillion, 2000; Traphagan Griffith, 1998; Wee et al.., 1995). According to Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006) many users believed that original softwares are overpriced, this concept was also supported by the studies conducted by Albert-Miller (1999);Block et al.., (1993); Cheng et al.., (1997). 2.4.6 Software piracy in an ethical context Banerjee et al.., (1998,) developed a research framework based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to model the ethical behavior intentions of Information system (IS) professionals and found that individual and situational characteristics do influence ethical behavior intentions. Loch and Conger (1996) in their study found that attitude and social norms play an important role in ethical decision making situation which can be related to the use of pirated software. Researches done on the subject of software piracy found that software piracy was a normative and accepted behavior, (Cohen and Cornwell 1989), and many individuals do not consider software piracy as a moral issue and use of pirated software is widely common among the business students (Soloman and OBrien 1990) Simpson et al.., (1994,) examined factors influencing softlifting, and identified five factors that influence and individuals decision making process, they are, stimulus to act, socio- cultural factors, legal factors, personal factors, situational factors. They found out that personal and situational factor influence the softlifting behavior. Thong and Yap .., (1998,) also attempted to explain soft lifting behavior using ethical decision making theory (the theory suggest that individuals are influence by deontological[1]F and teleological[2]F consequences of behavior) study showed both were found to influence the decision to use pirated software. Peace et al.., (2003,) generated a software piracy model using Theory of Planned behavior (TPB) as a framework to explain the intention to use pirated software. The study concluded that attitude (which is affected by the cost of original software, punishment severity and punishment certainty), subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were found to be significant factors that influence the intention of and individual to use pirated software. Zhang et al.., 2009 used the general theory of crime and deterrence theory to explain behavior that leads to digital piracy and they found out that only risk taking and punishment certainty leads to digital piracy. Simpson et al.., (1994,) found out that, Academic institutions are increasingly including ethical education in their curriculum. However many studies done on software piracy suggest that ethical education in academic institution had no or minimal effect on the intention of the students to use pirated software (Simpson et al.., 1994; Taylor and Shim.., 1993). Even though, individuals who felt a moral obligation or guilt towards software piracy have less intention to use pirated software (Cronan and Al-Rafee.., 2007). Logsdon et al.., (1994) and Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006) in their studies tested the assumption that individuals with higher level of moral development, are less likely to use pirated software, however they did not find a strong relationship between level of moral judgment and attitude towards using software piracy. The researchers also warn the software developers that even individuals with higher moral reasoning may engage in software piracy. Its believed that culture of a country influences the development of an individuals moral judgment and on understanding of moral intensity regarding software piracy. Christensen and Eining (1990) indicated that individual do not see piracy as inappropriate behavior and they do not believe their friends and superiors believe its inappropriate behavior. Researches concludes that use of pirated softwares in colleges and universities are more common than the general public (Kini et al, 2004). A study conducted by Taylor and Shim (1993) found out that professors use pirated softwares more than business executives. With a sample size of 243 college students , Kuo and Hsu (2001) conducted a research based on Banduras social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1982) and they discovered that self-efficacy was an important element in software piracy, subject with higher self-efficacy were more likely to engage in piracy. The famous psychologist Albert Bandura defines self-efficacy as â€Å"over belief in our ability to succeed in a specific situation†. Kini et al (2004) studied the cultural differences between the students of United States and Thailand in relation to software piracy, and they found out that students of United States has higher moral understanding towards software piracy compare to the students in Thailand. Swinyard et al (1990) in their research suggested that Asians have a more casual attitude towards software piracy than Americans, they are more likely to copy or buy software and less likely to criticize anyone who uses pirated software. Ferrell and Gresham (1985) emphasized the importance of peer group working supervisors in affecting ethical behavior. Christensen and Eining (1991), identified that the decision to use pirated software are influenced by the attitudes of friends and organization, these researchers also indicated that students do not perceive software piracy as inappropriate since they also believe their friends and superiors share this same view. 2.4.7 Problem of software piracy Softwares were the first product thats copied electronically in a large scale (Swinyard et al.., 1990). According to Yang, (2009) software piracy is a huge problem for policy makers and consumers alike, due to the uncertainty involving cross border conflicts, business losses and consumer exposing to virus and different kind of identity theft. McDonald and Roberts (1994) also considered software piracy as a very serious problem though out the world and the reason that it has become so hard to deal with this problem is the easiness in duplicating a copyrighted product. Tang and Farn (2005) concluded that supply to the pirated software will exists as long as there is a demand for pirated software, enforcement of laws and regulation and awareness programs may minimize the piracy rates, but it will not stop people from using pirated software. 2.4.8 Software piracy from a different angle Researchers who try to take the use of software piracy positively suggests that, software piracy can be seen as a form of product sampling, and that sampling can aid in the diffusion of a good (Gupta et al, 2004).As per Mahajan and Muller 1995, the success of excel over lotus 1, 2, and 3 was due to the high tolerance level towards software piracy. Givon et al, (1995), in their paper, â€Å"Software Piracy: Estimation of lost sales and impact on software diffusion† used a diffusion modeling approach to estimate the sale of software piracy, and they concluded software piracy creates shadow diffusion of the software same as the diffusion of original software in the market, the shadow diffusion is a major influential factor on the diffusion of the original software. They argue that the sellers of the pirated softwares may influence the potential buyers to adopt the pirated software, and some of these adopters might even purchase the original software. However, Solomon and OBrien.., (1990,) had a different view; they think software piracy will de-motivate the software developers to bring quality products to the market. Also the consumers have to pay a higher price to use original software; because the price of the legitimate software is inflated in order to make up to the loss of revenue from software piracy (Eining and christensen.., 1991; Taylor and Shim, 1993,). In the fight against software piracy, Germany has started enforcing a charge on every CD burner that is sold to compensate the loss of revenue due to piracy (Cronan and Al-Rafee.., 2007,) 2. 5 Models used in literatures of software piracy In this section, previous research models are discussed in order to explain software piracy. Five models related to software piracy will be examined here, as shown below. 2.5.2 Tim Goles et al Model Tim Goles et al.., 2007 proposed a model to identify the intention to softlift, their model is shown below: The model shows that there is a significant positive relationship between Perceived usefulness, past behavior, technical personal identity, and risk taking personal identity towards attitude to softlift. And negative relation between awareness of the law, moral personal obligation, and legal personal identity towards attitude to softlift. Furthermore the past behavior and attitude towards softlifting has a positive relation with the persons intention