Software piracy at work place: influence of organizational culture in the presence of various ethical orientations

Technology in terms of ‘information technology’ is a revolutionary discovery from time to time. On the similar note, one of the famous issues of IT is the Software Piracy, which has been the talk of the organizations every now and then. Software Piracy i.e. to avoid the illegal act of copying and stealing others information has always been a headache for organizations leading to billion dollars losses and no returns. This paper tracks the association of organizations’ ethical culture with its orientations and software piracy. It is understand the influence of ethical behavior of the organization on software piracy handling. The study revealed that there is a negative association between perceived organizational ethical culture and software piracy in organizations. In particular, organizational ethical culture significantly influences software piracy decisions for individual having ‘Exceptionist’ ethical orientation. Subsequently, there is no significant association between organizational ethical culture and software piracy for Subjectivists, Absolutists and Situationists.Software Piracy, Software Licensing, Ethical Orientations, Organizational Culture

State of the Artist: Challenges to the New York State Arts & Entertainment Industry and its Workforce

[Excerpt] In 2009, with support from Empire State Development (ESD), the Cornell University ILR School published its first report on the state of the New York arts and entertainment (A&E) workforce, Empire State’s Cultural Capital at Risk? Assessing Challenges to the Workforce and the Educational Infrastructure for New York State’s Arts and Entertainment Industry. The report analyzed a number of key characteristics of the A&E workforce across electronic media, live performing, and visual arts, identifying the most pressing issues for New York A&E workers and the support structures in place to protect their interests. The report concluded by proposing a number of questions to policymakers to be considered in future legislation. State of the Artist both updates this analysis of the State A&E workforce and analyzes trends in recent years based on comparable data presented in the 2009 report. The current report draws from government surveys, industry reports, and interviews with key stakeholders to assess the condition of the NYS A&E industry and its workforce, identifying key issues faced by workers in each sector of the industry. In addition to an extensive review of current literature, data from primary and secondary sources was analyzed to assess the state of the industry and major trends by sector. Survey data from the US Census Bureau and Department of Labor, notably from the American Community Survey (ACS), were retrieved to isolate trends in A&E workforce employment patterns, demographics, and income by occupational group. This analysis, including a conference attended by industry leaders and representatives to assess reactions to preliminary findings, served to identify current challenges facing this vital workforce to the state economy. Often left out of discussions about precarious workers, many working within the A&E industry continue to face high rates of contingent and project-based employment, low average income, and inadequate employment protections—all of which are explored here. State of the Artist concludes with a summary of public policies currently in place as well as those under consideration, providing an updated set of questions for New York policymakers

Social network market: Storytelling on a web 2.0 original literature site

This article looks at a Chinese Web 2.0 original literature site, Qidian, in order to show the coevolution of market and non-market initiatives. The analytic framework of social network markets (Potts et al., 2008) is employed to analyse the motivations of publishing original literature works online and to understand the support mechanisms of the site, which encourage readers’ willingness to pay for user-generated content. The co-existence of socio-cultural and commercial economies and their impact on the successful business model of the site are illustrated in this case. This article extends the concept of social network markets by proposing the existence of a ripple effect of social network markets through convergence between PC and mobile internet, traditional and internet publishing, and between publishing and other cultural industries. It also examines the side effects of social network markets, and the role of market and non-market strategies in addressing the issues

Musical Property Rights Regimes in Tanzania and Kenya after TRIPS

Despite the passage of relatively uniform copyright legislation throughout East Africa and the formation of regional organizations meant to further standardize these laws, the protection of musical works in East African creative industries has varied significantly within and between Tanzania and Kenya. While enforcement remains weak throughout East Africa, each country has also taken a different path in the implementation of copyright policies meant to support musical property rights. These different trajectories can be explained, in large part, by the particular political, social and economic paths taken by East African countries toward the neoliberal present

Copyright Protection In The Digital Era: A Malaysian Perspective

This paper seeks to explore the significance of copyright protection in Malaysia’s business environment of the digital era. Copyright law is increasingly being challenged with the intensification of internet use now. Issues of piracy and infringement of rights raise concerns surrounding the enforcement of legal measures for protection of copyrights. Hence the paper aim to understand the role and function of copyright in the digital era, and assessing the Malaysian society’s awareness of cyberspace copyright protection. This is an interpretive research carried out by conducting interviews, on 3 different groups of respondents, which are the dot.com companies, the IP professionals and government officials. The findings indicate there is a difference amongst the three groups in the understanding and awareness of Intellectual Property Rights and copyright protection; and that Malaysian government is not actively and effectively promoting awareness of the copyright issues to the public. Also it is imperative for Malaysian authorities to enhance protection of copyright in cyberspace.

Enforcing IPR through Informal Institutions: The possible role of religion in fighting software piracy

The existence of formal IPR laws can be considered a prerequisite for having efficient law enforcement but does not imply efficient enforcement in itself. A simple model is constructed to explain the interplay between the IPR law and human behavior within counterfeiting countries. It shows how a politically monitored IPR enforcement strategy is able to alter formal IPR laws or institutions but might not affect informal institutions, or human morals and behavior, to the same extent, hence barely affecting piracy situation. The model shows the essential role of informal institutions and its sanction mechanisms in the enforcement process. The main obstacle of IPR enforcement is that people are still not convinced that IPR violations are unethical. Religion can be considered an informal institution that might support or hinder formal laws issued with regards to IPR and hence influence de facto enforcement of laws, especially in countries with high piracy rate if a high adherence to religion is found. As the Religion-Loyalty Index (RLI) developed by this study shows, Muslim countries have the highest religiosity level among different religions. Consequently, an investigation of how Islamic jurisprudence views IPR piracy is conducted. As Islam generally prohibits IPR piracy, a set of policy recommendations based on new institutional perspective is presented that can effectively help in minimizing IPR piracy in developing countries in general and Muslim ones in specific.Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Formal vs. Informal Institutions, New Institutional Economics (NIE), Software Piracy, Religion, Enforcement

Growth of ICT and ICT for Development: Realities of the Myths of the Indian Experience

ICT, growth, development, India, software exports

Dealing With Piracy. Intellectual Asset Management In Music And Software

The music and software industry are employing copy-protection devices in CDs and digital downloads to strengthen their weak appropriability regimes that leave ample opportunities for modern-day piracy. The effectiveness of the strategy is explained on the grounds that (a) the knowledge involved in copy protection is generally too sophisticated for consumers to circumvent, and (b) consumers are not allowed to use circumvention techniques created by knowledgeable third parties. Copy protection is controversial, because it deprives consumers from making home copies of music and software, and hence overrules copyright law that exempts the copying for private use. It is argued that the technical enforcement of copyright protection in the home domain of millions of individuals necessitates a wide consensus between business and society about the legitimacy of private and fair use