Fair Play for Fair Pay: Fighting Digital Piracy through Revenue Sharing

Considering a setting where a content provider (CP) sells their content to customers over a network owned by an ISP, we examine whether the CP can use monetary incentives to encourage the ISP to fight digital piracy without any intervention by the policymaker. In our model, the CP sets a fraction of its revenue that is shared with the ISP and the price of its content, the ISP determines its anti-piracy enforcement level, and users decide whether to purchase, copy, or not use the content. We find that voluntarily sharing its revenue with the ISP can lead to increased profits for the CP, non-decreasing profits for the ISP, and reduced piracy. More importantly, we find that although being characterized by low data usage raises the chance of achieving a revenue sharing contract, it also exposes the CP to higher levels of digital piracy

Internet Governance Through Site Shutdowns: The Impact of Shutting Down Two Major Commercial Sex Advertising Sites

In the two weeks after the U.S. Congress passed a package of anti-sex trafficking bills on March 21, 2018, two of the largest online commercial sex advertising platforms ceased operation. On March 23, Craigslist voluntarily removed their personals section, which had been dominated by advertisements for commercial sex. And on April 6, the Department of Justice seized Backpage.com, the largest online platform for commercial sex advertisements. Our research examines the impact of these shutdowns on a variety of important outcome variables, notably prostitution arrests and violence against women— variables that the prior literature has shown were impacted by the introduction of commercial sex advertising platforms.We employ a generalized difference-in-differences model by exploiting cross-city variation in the preshutdown usage of the two shuttered sites. We find no causal effect of the shutdowns on any of the outcome variables we measure. Further analysis suggests that these null results are likely due to the fluidity of online markets. Our data show that the majority of advertisers and users of Backpage and Craigslist’s personals quickly moved to other (often off-shore) commercial sex advertising portals. Our results highlight the challenges that governments face in reducing online sex trafficking, as the market for commercial sex advertising appears agile enough to quickly disperse to offshore sites after a few popular domestic sites are shut down. Our results have general implications for the governance of other illegal activities online

Factors that influence attitude towards video on demand piracy

Digital piracy is an issue that affects industries like the Vídeo On Demand (VOD) streaming services which lose clients that prefer to use unauthorized sources to watch content instead of subscribing to its providers. Thus, companies must understand what makes individuals have this attitude to lure them back to their platforms successfully. This study focuses on the factors that influence deviant media content consumption behaviors and which ones impact the attitude towards VOD Piracy. A survey with 275 valid responses from consumers of VOD content and an empirical study was undertaken. The results indicate that Easiness To Use and Subjective norms have a positive correlation while Morality has a negative correlation with attitude towards VOD Piracy. Price Fairness Perception was found to not have a significant effect on attitude. Furthermore, an analysis using Process Macro showed that individualism is a moderator of subjective norms which consequently affects its relationship with the attitude towards VOD Piracy. Due to morality, easiness to use, and subjective norms (moderated by individualism) being significant factors of attitude towards VOD Piracy as per the findings of this study, it is suggested that companies add features to their services that consumers value and cannot be copied by unauthorized sources since people opt to watch these contents without paying because overall they do not feel bad for doing it and it is accessible while they would do it if there were reasons (beyond the content) to support and value the brand as the price isn’t a significant factor.A pirataria digital leva as pessoas a optar por fontes ilegais em vez das plataformas de Video on Demand (VOD) para assistir conteúdo. Logo, as empresas devem compreender o que faz com que os indivíduos tenham esta atitude para os atrair de volta às suas plataformas com sucesso. Este estudo centra-se nos fatores que influenciam comportamentos de consumo de conteúdos desviantes dos meios de comunicação e quais os que influenciam a atitude em relação à Pirataria VOD. Foi realizado um inquérito com 275 respostas válidas e os resultados indicam que “Facilidade de utilização” e “Normas Subjetivas” têm uma correlação positiva enquanto a “Moralidade” tem uma correlação negativa com a atitude em relação à Pirataria de VOD. “Perceção de Equidade do Preço” não teve um efeito significativo na atitude. Ainda, uma análise utilizando Process-Macro, mostrou que o individualismo é um moderador das “Normas Subjetivas” afetando a sua relação com a atitude quanto à Pirataria de VOD. Devido à “Moralidade”, “Facilidade de Utilização” e “Normas Subjetivas” (moderadas pelo individualismo) serem fatores significativos de acordo com as conclusões deste estudo, sugere-se que as empresas acrescentem aos seus serviços características que os consumidores valorizam e que não podem ser copiadas por fontes não autorizadas, uma vez que as pessoas optam por ver estes conteúdos sem pagar porque, no geral, não se sentem mal por o fazerem e é acessível enquanto o fariam se houvessem razões (para além do conteúdo) para apoiar e valorizar a marca, sendo que o preço não é um fator significativo

Catch me if you can: effectiveness and consequences of online copyright enforcement

We evaluate the unexpected shutdown of kino.to, a major platform for unlicensed video streaming in the German market. Using highly disaggregated clickstream data in a difference-in-differences setting, we compare the web behavior of 20,000 consumers in Germany and three control countries. We find that this intervention was not very effective in reducing unlicensed consumption or encouraging licensed consumption, mainly because users quickly switch to alternative unlicensed sites. We highlight that the shutdown additionally had important unintended externalities. Individuals who never visited kino.to and who additionally clicked on news articles that covered the shutdown increased their visits to piracy websites substantially. We show that this effect largely comes from articles that explicitly mention alternative websites or suggest that users do not have to fear legal consequences from unlicensed streaming. Finally, we document that the unlicensed video streaming market is much more fragmented after the shutdown, potentially affecting future interventions, at least in the short run.We argue that our results can be helpful to understand why online piracy rates are still high, despite a plethora of enforcement efforts.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement

We evaluate the unexpected shutdown of kino.to, a major platform for unlicensed video streaming in the German market. Using highly disaggregated clickstream data in a difference-in-differences setting, we compare the web behavior of 20,000 consumers in Germany and three control countries. We find that this intervention was not very effective in reducing unlicensed consumption or encouraging licensed consumption, mainly because users quickly switch to alternative unlicensed sites. We highlight that the shutdown additionally had important unintended externalities. Individuals who never visited kino.to and who additionally clicked on news articles that covered the shutdown increased their visits to piracy websites substantially. We show that this effect largely comes from articles that explicitly mention alternative websites or suggest that users do not have to fear legal consequences from unlicensed streaming. Finally, we document that the unlicensed video streaming market is much more fragmented after the shutdown, potentially affecting future interventions, at least in the short run. We argue that our results can be helpful to understand why online piracy rates are still high, despite a plethora of enforcement efforts

Social Learning Theory and Digital Piracy: Explaining Uploading Behaviors of Digital Pirates

Digital piracy has received significant attention in criminological research but almost no studies have explored illegal uploading and how it may differ from illegal downloading. It is important to examine what theories can explain illegal uploading behaviors and their related factors to develop more effective policies to address digital piracy. This dissertation examined whether Akers’ (1998) social learning theory could explain engagement in digital piracy, both illegal downloading and uploading behavior. Additionally, this research examined the relationship between reciprocity and digital piracy. Questionnaires were administered to 398 university students and 315 visitors to several online communities using a combination of random and nonrandom sampling techniques. Confirmatory factor analysis and a series of structural equation models were used for analysis. Social learning theory was modeled as a second-order latent factor with latent factors for reciprocity and both outcomes while controlling for multiple covariates. Social learning theory was positively related to self-reported illegal downloading behavior and self-reported illegal uploading behavior. Perceptions of reciprocity had a positive direct effect on illegal uploading behavior but did not have a significant direct effect on illegal downloading behavior. Perceptions of reciprocity partially mediated the relationship between social learning and illegal uploading behavior. Self-control was not related to illegal downloading and uploading behaviors, but did have significant indirect effects through social learning. The main contributions of this dissertation were the application of social learning theory to explain illegal uploading and the empirical evidence supporting reciprocity. Possible directions for future research and policy implications are discussed

Benefits and Drawbacks of Digital Platforms with Policy Analysis

Digital platforms offer numerous advantages to consumers and businesses. Our first stream of research examines the role of shared platforms that are characterized by offering exclusive services to customers, also known as member-only services. Such services mitigate customers' disutility of online purchasing and enable shared platforms to reduce the risk of losing customers to competitors. Using analytical modelling methodologies, our first research chapter aims to understand the economic and social implications of shared platforms. Our finding in this chapter shows that shared platforms maximize their profits by subsidizing the customer-side of the market. Although digital platforms have enlarged contestability in many markets by allowing small firms to develop innovative solutions to compete with monopolies, they have brought new challenges. The second research stream uses analytical modelling methodologies to study two important challenges of digital platforms: biased intermediation and digital piracy. As digital platforms have grown in size and influence, there are concerns about their engagement in anti-competitive behavior, such as having incentives to offer matches that are more profitable to themselves rather than the most relevant ones to users. This conduct is called biased intermediation. Our first research chapter in this stream quantifies the economic and social impacts of biased intermediation and examines whether imposing taxes on digital platforms' revenue can mitigate the potentially harmful effects of biased intermediation. With the rise of digital platforms, it has become easier for individuals to access and share copyrighted material without permission. This has had a significant impact on the revenues of the entertainment industry, with losses estimated to be in the billions of dollars annually. Thus, policymakers must understand the new market realities of digital platforms and reinterpret traditional regulatory approaches accordingly. The second research chapter in the second stream studies how a policymaker can mitigate the harmful effects of digital piracy by imposing fines on pirates, subsidizing legal purchases, and supporting the publisher through restitution within a balanced budget

Online Piracy and the “Longer Arm” of Enforcement

Controlling digital piracy has remained a top priority for manufacturers of information goods, as well as for many governments around the world. Among the many forms taken by digital piracy, we focus on an increasingly common one—namely, online piracy—that is facilitated by torrent sites and cyberlockers who bring together consumers of pirated content and its suppliers. Motivated by recent empirical literature that makes a clear distinction between antipiracy efforts that restrict supply of pirated goods (supply-side enforcement) and ones that penalize illegal consumption (demand-side enforcement), we develop a simple economic model and discover some fundamental differences between these two types in terms of their impacts on innovation and welfare. All in all, supply-side enforcement turns out to be the “longer arm”—it has a more desirable economic impact in the long run. Our results have clear implications for manufacturers, consumers, and policy makers