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Despite increasing anti-piracy legislation, digital piracy remains widespread and presents a huge barrier to the growth of creative industries globally. Hence, this study aims to examine predictors of digital piracy through the lens of an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Furthermore, the authors also examine the moderating effects of past experience (non-experienced versus experienced) on the relationships between the common four TPB dimensions on intention to engage in digital piracy.

Using a survey method, the authors collected 832 student respondents in Semarang, Indonesia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was performed to analyse the proposed hypotheses.

The results showed that the influence of attitude, subjective norm and moral obligation on intention is significantly different between experienced and non-experienced consumers. The positive influence of attitude on intention to engage in digital piracy is stronger for non-experienced than experienced consumers. The influence of subjective norm on intention is significant and positive for non-experienced consumers but is not significant for experienced consumers. The influence of moral obligation on intention is significant and positive for non-experienced consumers but turns negative and significant for experienced consumers.

This research contributed to the body of knowledge by investigating the role of past experience as a moderator in the TPB model which renders the authors to have a better understanding of the differences in the thinking process between experienced and non-experienced consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the driving factors of e-books’ illegal downloading and price acceptance from a theoretical perspective that embraces ethical and technological aspects. The diffusion of e-readers and tablets has led to a spate of pirated copies of books.

The proposed model holds that normative and value consciousness, as well as the self-efficacy, the usefulness and the use of the new technology, are determinants of the trend towards free downloads and the maximum acceptable price for e-books. Data are collected from a sample of 227 users of e-book reader devices.

The results provide evidence that individuals are inclined towards piracy when they use and control the technology, whereas value consciousness mitigates illegal downloading and is basic to the individuals’ acceptance of a higher price.

Bearing in mind that the spread of electronic devices has led to an increase in downloads, raising awareness of the norms among individuals is essential if piracy is to be curtailed. In addition, actions aimed at endowing electronic books with value would encourage consumers to pay a higher price for them.

Few attempts have been made to apply ethics theories and the technology acceptance model to the context of e-books’ piracy, and even less effort has been devoted to analyse consumers’ price acceptance in the e-book industry.

Contemporary copyright infringement has significantly changed in the digital era, and because of the unique attributes of internet piracy and method of exchange, traditional regulatory approaches are ineffective. The characteristics of digital goods enable users to almost costlessly copy and exchange content. Much of the contemporary research fails to incorporate the necessary components of exchange that are central to digital piracy. This paper aims to examine the role of peer-to-peer network hosts and the often-omitted cyberlocker.

A simple framework is constructed that describes how these entities how these entities facilitate digital piracy and operate financially. This framework illustrates the objectives of piracy mediators, highlighting the avenues by which regulation can craft policy. Additional examination of online piracy highlights the challenges of contemporary policy to combat digital piracy due to the secondary consequences.

Recent policies, aimed at diminishing piracy, would infringe on consumers’ privacy, hurt business finances or strategically used by rivals to hurt the operations of legal entities. Trying to prevent illegal sources (or facilitators) of pirate goods from providing access to files continues to be challenging. In many instances, the blurry line between a legal platform for file exchange and a piracy haven creates significant regulatory problems. For known piracy promoters (host sites or cyberlockers), location and revenue streams continue to limit direct intervention.

This paper discusses the necessary path for piracy to occur by including previously omitted agents necessary for communication and/or distribution. My analysis incorporates these entities that facilitate piracy and the unique features of digital exchange, which has industrial and regulatory implications. Furthermore, my results highlight why regulators have been ineffective in crafting meaningful anti-piracy policy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of intermediary platforms, such as Pandora and Spotify, in reducing piracy of digital music.

The authors modify a predator-prey theoretical framework of copyright piracy to account for the impact of intermediary platforms on the consumption of original works and illegal copies.

The theory shows that an increase in the number of legal alternative platforms available to consumers of digital music results in an unambiguous increase in the consumption of legitimate music and an unambiguous decrease in the consumption of unauthorized copies.

The results suggest that policies to encourage entrepreneurship by intermediary platforms in the music industry serve as a complement to other policies currently being employed to combat piracy of digital music.

The paper is the first of its kind to analyze the important role of intermediary platforms in reducing piracy of digital music while encouraging innovation by artists. Historically, entrepreneurship in this field has been controversial, given the gray areas surrounding what is and is not copyright infringement in the ever-evolving digital age. This paper highlights that once copyright laws are clearly defined, business growth in this area can be a highly effective solution to the piracy problem.

Intellectual property theft amounts to billions of dollars per year worldwide. The first step in stemming this loss is to understand the underlying precursors of this behavior. This paper aims to propose and test a model of consumer choice to purchase or pirate intellectual property, specifically music. This paper combines and applies the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and Becker’s theory of crime to develop a more comprehensive model of digital piracy behavior. Culture was tested as an antecedent to the attitudes and the perceptions of risk associated with music piracy.

A survey of 4,618 participants was conducted across 23 countries. Construct measures were validated using confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL. A conceptual model was tested using logistic structural equation modeling in MPlus. Respondents were asked about the last music they acquired to test a behavioral model of music piracy.

The results indicated that culture, specifically rule orientation and uncertainty avoidance, had a significant impact on attitudes toward the music industry, ethical perceptions of music piracy and risk perceptions. Respondents’ ethical perceptions of downloading had the highest impact on music piracy behavior. The personal/copy risk associated with the illegal downloading of music had a significant impact while the relative channel risk did not. The market value, quality and selection also had a significant impact on downloading behavior, as did the respondent's ability to find and download music.

While this paper was limited by focusing on the illegal downloading of music, the results can provide guidance in the design of future research concerning the piracy and unlicensed downloading of other types of intellectual properties such as movies/videos, TV, paywall content and e-books.

In recent years, improved access to music and video through online streaming and online stores has significantly decreased music piracy. This research indicated that further inroads into this behavior could be made through better online purchase access and through consumer education about the ethics and results of digital downloading. Further, efforts are more efficient by targeting cultures with lower levels of rule orientation with ethics education and targeted risk messages in countries with higher uncertainty avoidance.

Yearly losses to the music industry amount to about $5-29bn. Many find music and video downloading and “sharing” as acceptable. The model developed in this research has implications to affect this mass loss of revenue to the music industry and perhaps the societal view of downloading behavior that is illegal but commonly accepted.

This model is the first to integrate cultural aspects into models of digital piracy. In addition, the model is developed from a strong theoretical base (TRA and Becker’s theory of crime) to integrate multiple antecedents to intellectual property theft research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how well digital piracy self‐report intentions predict actual digital piracy behaviors in service marketing research.

Study 1 collects 321 surveys to investigate potential measurement issues related to digital piracy intention formation. Study 2 replicates Study 1 based on a separate sample of 267 respondents, and additionally links digital piracy intentions to directly observed digital piracy behaviors across a peer‐to‐peer network.

The results first validate a strong predictive relationship between self‐report intentions and observed digital piracy behaviors (R²=0.36). Second, common method bias and measurement error do not appear to threaten the veracity of reported results. Third, a social psychological model of how digital piracy behaviors emerge is validated based upon the folk theory of the mind. Finally, a two‐dimensional conceptualization of frequency of past behaviors is identified based upon exploratory factor analysis using structural equation modeling.

The research reported here relies on experimental methods of measuring peer‐to‐peer network activity. Future research might consider the motivational and attitudinal antecedents to digital piracy intention formation.

The results afford service marketers assurance that self‐report measures of digital piracy behavioral intentions can serve as predictive measures of future behaviors. This helps make the collection of data in this context both achievable and practical. Also, a methodological framework is identified to strengthen measurement models associated with this type of research.

The research provides a first effort to empirically relate behavioral intention data to unobtrusively observed digital piracy behaviors across peer‐to‐peer networks.

This paper aims to generate novel insights in supply chain management by reviewing studies related to counterfeiting and piracy issues with a particular emphasis on theoretical works.

A systematic literature review of more than 100 peer-reviewed academic papers is conducted. The authors first introduce the social acceptance of counterfeiting and piracy to explain the existence of these illegal products. After that, they focus on the negative effect of counterfeiting and piracy on supply chain management and society while mentioning their positive and normative effects carefully under certain circumstances.

People have been attempting to reveal the impacts of counterfeiting and piracy on customers, licit firms, industry sectors, governments and the society as a whole. The negative impacts of counterfeiting and piracy on legal firms and licit supply chains is examined thoroughly in the literature; however, benefits from counterfeiting and piracy are also pointed out. Additionally, researchers are interested in firms’ reactions toward this phenomenon. Based on heuristics from the above analysis, it is fruitful to conduct this research in a theme of supply chain management.

Most studies on counterfeiting and piracy are not from a supply chain management perspective and mainly focus on their effect on consumers or a single firm. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of few studies that incorporate the key aspects of counterfeiting and piracy into supply chain management and also highlight several important directions for future research in the sense of supply chain.

Along with their immense benefit, online channels of communication and information-sharing also present a myriad set of challenges. The unauthorized downloading and sharing of copyrighted content such as music and movies is one such issue. This study aims to examine the factors related to the unauthorized downloading of content amongst young internet users in an emerging market.

An online structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 219 internet users between 17 and 24 years of age. The partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the primary data.

The study findings report that monetary savings and social influence are the main drivers underlying the propensity to engage in unauthorized downloading amongst young adults. Perceptions of harm caused to artists and producers appear to be a deterrent. Though the respondents perceive the quality of content downloaded from unauthorized sites to be less than desirable, and there is also a higher perceived threat from viruses, this does not appear to deter unauthorized downloading behaviour amongst this segment of consumers.

Combating unauthorized downloading and other forms of questionable online behaviours is a challenge for multiple stakeholders. Consumption of unauthorized digital content is examined in the context of online consumers whose demographic profile is often associated with this category of questionable behaviour. The study adds to the extant understanding of the aetiology of what are often considered online unethical and illegal behaviours and makes both practical and theoretical contributions to the subject field.

The study examines an important aspect of rapidly evolving internet technologies. The internet provides a veil to individuals engaging in unethical online activities. Despite the existence of laws declaring these activities to be illegal, instances of copyright violations of music and movies abound. The insights regarding the drivers and deterrents of a form of online unauthorized activity are used to present a set of strategies aimed at addressing such behaviours.

Book piracy represents a threat to the publishing industry, while for the society, book piracy provides some benefits. The purpose of this study is to examine views of readers, authors and publishers in Lithuania on book piracy’s benefits to society.

This study uses phenomenography to examine readers’, authors’ and publishers’ reflections on book piracy’s potential social benefits. The authors collected research data via semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 10 participants from each group (readers, authors and publishers – a total of 30 interviews).

Six qualitatively different categories of attitudes were revealed, namely, that book piracy provides easier and more convenient access to books, helps readers save money, pushes readers to read more, helps for authors to gain more popularity, provides wider access to books and provides consumers with moral satisfaction. The similarities between readers’, authors’ and publishers’ views on benefits of book piracy outweigh the differences.

Theoretical background indicates that stakeholders’ explicitly stated attitudes towards book piracy contribute to their book piracy intentions. This study hopes to help publishers in Lithuania confront the challenge of book piracy and develop effective strategies to attenuate a normative framework with four actionable recommendations to help professionals in the publishing industry to better address book piracy.

Book piracy continues to perplex publishers, in part because they lack a clear understanding of the social and psychological underpinnings of book piracy. This study aims to develop such an understanding by filling gap in the literature on book piracy: the lack of work on readers’, authors’ and publishers’ perceptions of book piracy’s individual and social benefits.

The emergence of internet-enabled technology has led to the software service model in which the software firm, instead of the consumer, maintains software ownership. This model can curtail software piracy more effectively than the traditional on-premises software model. However, software firms are not abandoning traditional on-premises software but embracing both models simultaneously. In this study, the authors consider a firm’s software bundling decision in combination with its piracy deterrence strategy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors build three stylized models to analytically compare the bundling strategies under three scenarios: no piracy, piracy is present and piracy is present while the firm applies digital rights management (DRM).

The authors find pure bundling (PB) to be the optimal strategy due to the combination of competition and cannibalization effects in mixed bundling (MB). Simultaneously, consumers may enjoy greater surplus in PB than in MB, making PB the preferred strategy for both the firm and consumers. Interestingly, the win-win outcome coexists with some degree of piracy in the market.

The results provide important insights for firms and policy-makers and contribute to the literature on piracy and product bundling. First, the authors show piracy could be another driver for product bundling, which has never been discussed in prior literature. Second, the authors suggest an alternative perspective; that PB may be a desirable outcome for both firms and consumers when considering piracy and DRM. More surprisingly, this desirable outcome occurs with some level of piracy in the market. The presence of piracy leads to competition and cannibalization effects in MB, which eventually results in the win-win outcome in the software market for both the firm and the consumers.