Glossary

Words and definitions

ActiveX Control
A software module based on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) architecture.
Backward compatible
A product is said to be backward compatible (or downward compatible) when it is able to take the place of an older product, by interoperating with other products that were designed for the older product.
Bootleg
A product that is illicitly produced, distributed, or sold.
Broadband
Fast Internet access
Commercials
A form of advertising
Copy Protection
A means of preventing the illegal or unauthorized copying of a software product, especially a preventive routine that is incorporated into a copyrighted program.
Copyright
The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.
Copyright Infringement
The unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.
Cracks
The defeating of software copy protection.
Download
To transfer (data or programs) from a server or host computer to one’s own computer or device.
Freeware
Software that is available for free.
Hezbollah
Hezbollah is a militant group fighting Israeli occupation in Lebanon. It is regarded by Western countries as a terrorist group. For example, the European parliament voted 473-8 for the branding of Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Hezbollah supports the destruction of the state of Israel.
Open source
Software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source code evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as very large companies. Some examples of open source initiatives are Linux, Eclipse, Apache, Tomcat web server, Mozilla, and various projects hosted on SourceForge and elsewhere.
Patches
A fix to a program.
Peer-to-peer
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers. P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and realtime data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.
Piracy
The illegal copying of copyrighted material for sale
Public domain
The status of publications, products, and processes that are not protected under patent or copyright.
Royalties
It is also a sum of money paid for the use of a license, or for use of works covered by copyright, patent, registered design or trademark.
Shareware
Shareware is a marketing method for software, whereby a trial version is distributed in advance and without payment, as is common for proprietary software.
Trial
Crippled version of a software usually used by customers to try the software before they buy it
Video compression
Encoding digital video to take up less storage space and transmission bandwidth.
Virus
A self-replicating/self-reproducing-automation program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents.

Bibliography

To preserve accuracy, these definitions were extracted directly from Wikipedia.