Well, I guess we could call it copyright infringement, but most people will come up with their own terms for it.

I feel that the only reason you don't like any of these words is because you don't want copyright infringement painted in a bad light. It's a bad thing and it does cause software developers to eventually lose business, the words we use to describe it aren't going to change that.

>I feel that the only reason you don't like any of these words is because you don't want copyright infringement painted in a bad light.

No, I'm just pedantic. I don't do copyright infringement; as a developer, depending on copyright for my living, I hold that it would be immoral.

Even excellent counterfeit money is still called counterfeit. Also, the majority of pirated apps tend to not support auto-updating, as you need to go and get a new hack and you can't get support or advice from the application's author. I would say that is an obvious way in which they are inferior.

I think the difference with "counterfeiting" is that it suggests that you're intentionally misrepresenting the good as something it isn't. The underlying crime is when you trade such a good in bad faith (you sell a handbag to someone whom you allow to think it's from a famous designer, or you buy something in exchange for green pieces of paper which you pretend were issued by the US Mint).

By this definition, "brand-name" shrinkwrap software that you bought cheaply in SE Asia that has suspiciously poorly-reproduced covers and instructions might be counterfeit (because the purchaser might be misled into thinking they're getting an official edition), but most p2p piracy is not (because there's no discrepancy between what the recipient gets and what they think they're getting).

No, a counterfeit Louis Vuitton bag that's made with better materials and craftsmanship is still counterfeit.