Search results

The costs of software piracy are enormous. According to Business Software Alliance, it was estimated that the software industry lost $34 billion globally due to software piracy in 2005. The present study was an exploratory attempt to analyze software piracy at individual level, using a qualitative approach.

A qualitative research study with few, if any, theoretical preconceptions would seem to be justified in the Asian context. An internet online survey and a content analysis of internet newsgroups were conducted. Data were transcribed, coded and interpreted so as to generate main predictors of the reported leniency toward software piracy.

Using extensive qualitative data from two studies, marketing, individual and situational variables are examined as a set of predictors of respondents' reported leniency towards software piracy. The results of the content analysis suggested that the cost of original software was extremely important in software piracy. Respondents commented that excessive price of original software was the key factor pushing them to commit piracy.

This is the first piece of qualitative research to study software piracy. The results of the content analysis suggested that the cost of original software was extremely important in software piracy. It provides new insights to software companies and government officials who are developing programs to promote the concept of anti‐piracy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between software piracy and technological outputs in developed nations.

The study employs the data of 28 industrialized countries from 2003‐2007. The hypotheses were tested using panel data regression.

The results demonstrate that software piracy appears to have the inverse U curve relationship with the aggregate technological outputs of a nation as measured through the share of high‐tech exports.

Even though past studies have tended to focus on the negative impact of software piracy, this study found interesting evidence that its impact is not always absolute. In particular, firms in high‐tech industries may benefit from the presence of software piracy when its level is limited at some optimal level. This benefit may derive from: the dissemination of technical knowledge; the diffusion of software deployment especially in small businesses; and the increase in technical skills of labors.

This study is the first that provides the empirical evidence of the inverse U curve relationship between software piracy and technological outputs at the national level.

Software piracy is an ongoing problem for software producers. At the same time, mobile devices such as personal digital assistants and smart phones are increasing in popularity. This paper seeks to examine the supply of pirate software for mobile devices, against a backdrop of conventional desktop piracy theory.

Using a novel data set of pirate software releases, the paper reviews 18,000 entries from a pirate software database to examine the type and origin of this software.

The paper finds that more popular platforms are not necessarily subject to greater levels of software piracy. For mobile devices, productivity software was more popular than game software. Many piracy groups were involved, but only four groups were responsible for over half of all releases. Some popular devices, such as the Blackberry and Apple iPhone, showed little to no piracy levels.

As with empirical research into any criminal or deviant behaviour, there may be intention to deceive. The findings regarding device popularity and availability of pirate software have implications for demand‐side research.

The findings provide insights for business managers and information security professionals in the telecommunications and mobile applications industries.

Prior research work has focused on software for desktop computers. This study contributes by being some of the first published work on piracy for mobile devices. The work is also original in that most prior research has focused on the demand for pirate software. This paper provides insight into the supply of this software.

The purpose of this paper is to examine global trajectories, dynamics, and tendencies of software piracy to ease the benchmarking of current efforts toward harmonizing the standards and enforcements of intellectual property rights (henceforth IPRs) protection worldwide.

For that purpose, the authors estimate dynamic panel data models for 99 countries over the period 1994-2010.

The main finding suggest that, a genuine timeframe for standardizing IPRs laws in the fight against software piracy is most feasible within a horizon of 4.3-10.4 years. In other words, full (100 percent) convergence within the specified timeframe will mean the enforcements of IPRs regimes without distinction of nationality or locality within identified fundamental characteristics of software piracy. The absence of convergence (in absolute and conditional terms) for the World panel indicates that, blanket policies may not be effective unless they are contingent on the prevailing trajectories, dynamics and tendencies of software piracy. Policy implications and caveats are also discussed.

It is the first attempt to empirically assess the convergence of IPRs systems across countries.

Poverty and inequality undoubtedly remain substantial challenges to economic and human developments amid growing emphasis on intellectual property rights (IPRs) (with recent advances in information and communication technology (ICTs)) and good governance. In the first empirical study on the incidence of piracy on inequality in Africa, the purpose of this paper is to examine how a plethora of factors (IPRs laws, education and ICTs and government quality) are instrumental in the piracy-inequality nexus.

Two-stage least squares estimation approaches are applied in which piracy is instrumented with IPRs regimes (treaties), education and ICTs and government quality dynamics.

The main finding suggests that, software piracy is good for the poor as it has a positive income-redistributive effect; consistent with economic and cultural considerations from recent literature. ICTs and education (dissemination of knowledge) are instrumental in this positive redistributive effect, while good governance mitigates inequality beyond the piracy channel.

As a policy implication, in the adoption IPRs, sampled countries should take account of the role less stringent IPRs regimes play on income-redistribution through software piracy. Collateral benefits include among others, the cheap dissemination of knowledge through ICTs which African countries badly need in their quest to become “knowledge economies.” A caveat, however, is that, too much piracy may decrease incentives to innovate. Hence, the need to adopt tighter IPRs regimes in tandem with increasing income-equality.

It is the first empirical assessment of the incidence of piracy on inequality in Africa: a continent with stubbornly high poverty and inequality rates.

To analyze Chinese consumers in purchasing pirated software; to establish and empirically validate a model for analyzing consumers in software piracy; and to help software companies understand the software piracy issue in China and design anti‐piracy strategies.

A research model was established by extending a model used by Ang et al. in studying Singaporeans' purchasing pirated CD. A survey was conducted. Hypotheses were tested through stepwise regressions. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to analyze Chinese consumers' attitude toward software piracy.

Four personal and social factors were found important in influencing Chinese consumers' attitude toward software piracy, including value consciousness, normality susceptibility, novelty seeking, and collectivism. Five attitude measures, which were important in influencing consumer purchase intention, were identified as reliability of pirated software, recognized social benefits of piracy, functionality of pirated software, risks of purchasing, and perceived legality of purchasing. An exploratory study identified three attitude attributes.

As student samples were used, caution needs to be exercised when generalizing findings from this study. Regressions were used to test construct relationships in the model, and the model was not tested as a whole.

This research provides an in‐depth understanding on Chinese consumers, and the research findings are useful in designing anti‐piracy strategies in China.

This research is one of the first to examine the Chinese market, which is a focus of piracy problems for the software industries. This research contributes to theory development in developing and testing a model and important constructs, and to industrial practice in providing understanding on Chinese consumers to help design anti‐piracy strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of moral equity, relativism, and attitude towards digital piracy behaviour in a developing country. End-user piracy is more difficult to detect than commercial piracy. Thus, an effective strategy to combat piracy needs a comprehensive understanding of both the supply and demand sides of piracy. The current study focuses on the demand side by investigating the impact of moral equity, relativism, and attitude on consumer piracy behaviour in Indonesia.

Using a convenient sample in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, questionnaires were distributed in a large private university. In addition, through snowball sampling techniques, the surveys were also distributed to other adults who live within a walking distance from the campus. The data collection resulted in 222 usable surveys (a response rate of 68 per cent).

In Indonesia, moral equity had a negative and significant impact on purchases of illegal copies of music CDs and pirated software. Relativism affects the purchase of pirated software positively, but its effect on purchases of illegal copies of CDs is insignificant. Attitude towards the act was negatively impacted by moral equity for CDs and software. Relativism only significantly affects the purchase of pirated software but in the opposite direction while it has failed to reach significance for illegal music CD purchases. Attitude towards the software piracy and purchases of illegal copies of music CDs positively affect consumer’s digital piracy behaviour. Finally, Indonesian consumers feel more morally wrong to purchase illegal copies of CDs than to buy pirated software.

In the context of Indonesia, higher moral equity has affected piracy behaviour negatively. Therefore, efforts to reduce piracy should focus on highlighting the importance of fairness and justice. One of the main drivers of digital piracy (e.g. buying, downloading, copying, and sharing digital materials illegally) is overpriced products. It has led many Indonesians to believe that it is acceptable to purchase pirated software and illegal copies of CDs. Nonetheless, if companies are able to lower prices; thus make it affordable to consumers, consumers will perceive fairness and justice in purchasing original copies of software and CDs.

There are very limited studies investigating factors impacting the purchase of pirated software and CDs in the developing countries specifically Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world and one of the biggest markets for counterfeit products. This is one of first few studies exploring this issue in Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to study factors that influence consumers' intention to purchase and use of pirated software.

This study tests the impact of five factors (procedural fairness, reciprocal fairness, distributive fairness, subjective norm, and attitude) on intention towards software piracy by 289 consumers' in Malaysia. Survey questions from prior studies were adopted and customized, and the model was analyzed using partial least squares and structural equation modeling tool (Smart‐PLS 2.0 M3).

The results indicated that a significant and positive relationship exists between reciprocal fairness, procedural fairness, subjective norm, attitude, and consumers' intention towards software piracy.

This study was restricted to consumers within one country (Malaysia). Additional studies across other countries are encouraged. This research can help businesses better improve the ways to reduce software piracy rates. They get to understand more about the exact problem and cause behind software piracy and can target better strategies to curb this problem.

This study is useful for researchers, managers, and software vendors willing to highlight the factors that contribute to software piracy.

The study highlights factors that influence consumers' intention towards software piracy, which has not been widely studied especially in Malaysia.

In the cloud computing era, three merging developments in software industry are: cloud and on-premises software may offer complementary value to each other; cloud software service requires the support of significant information technology infrastructure; and software piracy problems can be better managed in the cloud. However, how these developments together impact a vendor’s bundling strategy has not yet been investigated. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Drawing on the product bundling framework, this research establishes stylized models to study a software vendor’s bundling decision in the cloud-based era with special consideration on the issue of software piracy.

The authors find different key parameters associated with the cloud era exert different effects on the bundling decision. When on-premises software and cloud software generate additional value by complementing each other, software vendors can make greater profits under the pure components (PC) strategy. Regarding a low infrastructure cost, software vendors should favor pure bundling (PB). The impact of piracy deterrence effectiveness is less straightforward – it favors PC when piracy deterrence effectiveness is low, but PB when piracy deterrence effectiveness is high.

This study makes key contributions to theory and practice. First, this is the first study to examine software bundling strategies in the cloud computing era, whereby the three factors relevant to the cloud phenomenon have been considered. Second, this paper contributes to the literature of bundling and software piracy by examining the intersection of these two streams of literature. Third, this paper sheds light on a vendor’s bundling decision when facing piracy problems in the emerging cloud software era.

This article reports the results of a survey in Brunei Darussalam concerning the use of pirated software among academics. Though, the suspicion of academics using pirated software has long been circulating around in East and South East Asia, no “hard data” has ever been collected. This article confirms the suspicion, and provides new information on the use of pirated software outside the USA. Also reveals the type of tasks accomplished by academics with pirated software, and identifies the reasons for using such software. Moreover, relates academics’ use of pirated software with nine factors related to demographics, computer exposure, and job profile of academics. The findings are discussed, and are compared with some related findings reported elsewhere. Finally, concludes with some suggestions to curb piracy, and identifies areas of further research.