1. Introduction
The Internet has permanently changed the way consumers purchase goods. The use of Internet auctions has become more and more popular. An Internet auction is a virtual market place in which businesses and consumers can sell their products. This ?new' and quick type of trading without leaving your house is attractive to a lot of people. Famous auctions like eBay, Amazon & Yahoo became very popular destinations on the internet. There are different types of internet auctions. Generally, when people speak of electronic commerce and the individual customer, we most commonly think of business-to-consumer transactions, but one of the most innovative developments in electronic commerce is the rapidly growing Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) market (SIIA, 2001). With the huge benefits of electronic commerce also come a lot of disadvantages. The C2C markets also created new opportunities for software piracy. Through auction sites, software pirates are using new tactics to reach a huge audience, developing a thriving new customer base among often unsuspecting individuals. Software pirates have learned to manipulate Internet auction sites to reach hundreds of unknowing consumers everyday (SIIA, 2001). Pirated software might seem a good deal, because it is often very cheap, but many of such software may contain a virus. This software is also very illegal and will not be supported by the publisher. This paper will explain what software piracy is and what problems arise because of software piracy.
First, the paper will explain in more detail what an Internet auction is and what different types of auctions exist. It will also talk about the relation between the classical model of demand and supply and internet auctions and about bidding behaviour. Secon ...