THE COGNITIONS AND AFFECTS OF MORAL ATTITUDE TOWARD SOFTWARE PIRACY INTENTION

Internet proliferation and ubiquity are easing the process for individuals to copy, download, share, sell and distribute copyrighted software without purchasing a legal license. The prevalent piracy issue has not only caused a tremendous loss of revenues for legal software makers, but also raised piracy ethicality. The current study shows that moral attitude is one of important predictors for piracy intention. The purpose of this study is to increase its predictive power by including two planned behaviour constructs from the perspective of cognitive and affective beliefs. Based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, a conceptual framework is proposed to include perceived likelihood of punishment and perceived benefit as cognitive beliefs and perception of shame, happiness and excitement as affective beliefs

SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS IN SOFTWARE PIRACY RESEARCH

Most behavioural aspects of software piracy research are a subset of ethical research. Measures of ethical behaviour in research may be subject to biases in response to the social desirability of behaviours. Few studies in the area of software piracy have explicitly addressed this issu. Literature on social desirability bias (SDB) reports on three ways to address response bias: approaches to reduce bias, approaches to detect bias, and approaches to correct bias. In the current article, the published methods to reduce, detect, and, correct bias are reviewed. Then, the extent of SDB that may be present in the published software piracy literature is subjectively assessed. A study is proposed in which piracy behaviours involving real money are compared to the intent to pirate in paper-based scenarios, under equivalent conditions. The comparison is argud to be useful in compensating for SDB in future research

SAHTECİLİK, KORSANLIK VE EKONOMİK SÜRDÜRÜLEBİLİRLİK: ÇATIŞAN MODELLER

Who owns what develops in your mind? Counterfeiting and piracy have a lengthy history, yet are a youthful field when it comes to research.While generally accepted that 'sustainable' means 'to endure', sustainability as a concept is still open to interpretation (Holling, 2000) with at least 255 ways to visualize this concept. (Mann 2011) The question then becomes can you piece together two models which appear to be at odds with one another? On one hand, sustainability asks the question of how to leave a rich(er) future while piracy and counterfeiting are wrapped in terms such as freedom and redistribution.Are these concepts at odds? In the area of sustainable economics, it is generally accepted that there must be a management of three types of capital (economic, social, and natural) and that their consumption may be seen to be under stress (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002). But how does this concept relate to the consumption of illegally produced goods and those 'intangibles' which flow through a cyberspace universe? Producers of counterfeit goods often are complex organizations who carry out some form of ‘strategic planning’ and who may have well-defined strategies. Staake, Thiesse, and Fleisch (2009) note that little research exists for understanding the mechanisms of such supply side activities. Of concern today is that such activities appear to becoming institutionalized into our economic fabric. Evidence indicates that the informal economy is both significant in its marketplace impact and that the problem is likely more severe than first imagined. While figures vary, counterfeiting alone was estimated to represent 5-7% of world trade over a decade ago (OECD, 1998). Little is really known relating either to the true size of the problem or to the strategic posture of the actors involved. Therefore, a new question exists which requires examination, namely what are the strategic roles of economic pirates in a global marketplace and how does this relate to economic sustainability? Are those who operate in the shadows actually entrepreneurial drivers of innovation and a positive force in times of economic downturn? If so, should they be regulated as models of sustainability generally suggest.Aklınızda gelişen şeyin sahibi kimdir? Sahtecilik ve korsanlık araştırma için yeni bir alan olsa da uzun bir geçmişe sahiptir.”Sürdürülebilir” genellikle “dayanılabilir” anlamına gelse de bir kavram olarak sürdürülebilirliği yorumlayabilmek adına en az 255 yol vardır. Buradaki soru birbirlerinden farklı gibi görünen bu 2 modelin bir araya getirilip getirilemeyeceğidir. Diğer taraftan, özgürlük ve yeniden dağıtım gibi sahtecilik ve korsanlık birbirine bağlı kavramlar haline gelmişken sürdürülebilirlik nasıl zengin bir gelecek yaşanacağı sorusunu sorar. Bu kavramlar oranlanabilir mi? Sürdürülebilir ekonomi alanında genellikle sermayenin 3 tip yönetimi (ekonomik, sosyal ve doğa) ve bunların tüketiminin baskı altında olduğu kabul edilmektedir. Peki bu kavramın yasadışı üretilen malların tüketimi ve “soyut varlıkların” siber evrende akışıyla nasıl bir ilgisi vardır? Sahte mal üreticileri genellikle bir çeşit “stratejik planlama” yürüten ve iyi tanımlanmış stratejileri olabilen karmaşık örgütlerdir. Staake, Thiess ve Fleisch (2009) söz konusu arz yönlü faaliyetlerin mekanizmalarını anlamak adına az araştırma olduğunu ileri sürmüşlerdir. Günümüzdeki endişe bu tip faaliyetlerin ekonomik yapı içerisine kurumsallaşarak girmesidir. Bulgular göstermektedir ki; kayıtdışı ekonominin piyasa ekonomisi üzerindeki etkisi anlamlıdır ve problem düşünüldüğünden daha ciddi boyuttadır. Rakamlar farklılık arz etse de sahtecilik 10 yıl önceki dünya ticaretinin %5-7’si olarak tahmin edilmiştir. (OECD, 98) Küçük şeyler gerçekten bilinen sorunun gerçek boyutuyla ya da ilgili oyuncuların stratejik duruşuyla ilgilidir. Dolayısıyla sorulacak olan yeni soru şudur; ekonomik korsanların küresel pazarda stratejik roleri nelerdir ve bunun ekonomik sürdürülebilirlik ile nasıl bir ilişkisi vardır? Bu soru yeni incelemeleri de beraberinde getirmektedir. Peki bu gölge faaliyetleri olanlar aslında inovasyonun girişimci sürücüleri ve ekonomik kriz dönemlerindeki pozitif güçler midir? Eğer öyleyse sürdürülebilirlik modelleri önerildiği gibi düzenlenmelidir

Moral Judgment and Digital Piracy: Predicting Attitudes, Intention, and Behavior Regarding Digital Piracy Using a Modified Version of the Defining Issues Test

Digital piracy, the illegal copying or downloading of copyrighted digital products without approval from the copyright holders, has brought great economic loss to the software and digital media industries. Previous studies using moral developmental theory have not found consistent relationships between moral judgment and attitudes towards digital piracy. While some researchers have developed individual test items to assess relationships between moral judgment and attitudes toward digital piracy, others have relied on the Defining Issues Test (DIT). However, in that the DIT represents a general measure of moral judgment based on broad social issues, it, too, may not adequately assess an individual’s reasoning specific to issues regarding digital piracy. The purpose of this study was to create a reliable instrument (i.e., DP-DIT) modeled after the DIT designed to assess moral judgment regarding digital piracy as well as to examine and compare the ability of both DP-DIT and DIT2-short to predict attitudes, intentions and behaviors regarding digital piracy of college students. Results indicated the reliability of both the DIT2-short and the DP-DIT were discounted, quite likely due to the small number of stories contained in each. DP-DIT appeared to have greater predictive ability due to its advantage in predicting attitudes toward digital piracy, especially using DP-DIT MNS. However, even though here DP-DIT MNS was the strongest predictor of attitudes toward digital piracy, it explained a limited amount of variance. Further research to improve reliability and validity of DP-DIT is warranted

Gender Differences in Identity-Based Social Influence: An Experimental Examination of Software Piracy Behavior

Software piracy is the unauthorized copying, sharing, or using the software. It can be a profitable endeavor for individuals and a tremendous loss for the industry. According to Gulf News, Software piracy losses in the Arabian Gulf states in 2015 was 897$ million (AED 3.29 billion). Therefore, it is critical to understand as much as possible about the phenomenon and investigate the factors that influence subjects’ piracy behavior. Driven by gaps in previously published literature, the study presented here is an experimental investigation into the gender differences in identity-based social influence. In essence, the study examined if males or females are more likely to influence a group of their peers to either pirate or abstain from pirating a piece of software. While this topic is previously unstudied in the field of software piracy, it could be potentially useful in such areas as anti-piracy advertising. Further, as most of the published studies in software piracy are inclined to social desirability bias (as these studies traditionally rely on surveys and responses to paper-based scenarios), the study presented herein has been designed with the specific objective of avoiding social desirability bias by having real money at stake in an experimental setting

What do computer science students think about software piracy?

Today, software piracy is an issue of global importance. Computer science students are the future information and communication technologies professionals and it is important to study the way they approach this issue. In this article, we attempt to study attitudes, behaviours and the corresponding reasoning of computer science students in Greece regarding software piracy. The statements taken in 56 semi-structured interviews with students indicate that computer science students in Greece make intensive use of pirated software, mention as main reason for their practice the cost of genuine software, and blame the academic environment, coincidental stereotypes and their student status for this behaviour. They acknowledge the immoral character of their actions, as well as the fact that others are affected by software piracy, but they pay little attention to this action and they practically don't care. While keeping distance from software development companies, when specifically asked, they easily adopt the role of a software developer and attempt to substantiate their current and eventually future attitude out of hand. They consider software copyright laws to be inapplicable and unrealistic and fail to argue against intellectual property rights for mere digital products, such as software

Library and Information Science Students' Ethics Training and Attitudes about Intellectual Property Rights: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of the factors that influence library and information science (LIS) students' views on intellectual property rights, specifically illegal reuse of content on the web. The study utilizes interviews and surveys to explore attitudes toward illegal downloading of digital content in general, extent of ethics education in LIS classes, disciplinary differences between information and library science, and these variables' influence on attitudes towards illegal reuse of copyrighted content analyzed for correlation. The end result of this study is an exploration of the attitudes about intellectual property rights in the next generation of librarians to determine future areas of improvement (e.g., required ethics trainings for future librarians and information science workers; specific ways LIS programs can emphasize intellectual property concerns).Master of Science in Information Scienc

Consumos em rede não autorizados: pirataria digital em Portugal

Esta investigação sociológica analisou as modalidades de consumo e partilha em rede não autorizadas de ficheiros digitais que, em grande medida, são classificadas socialmente como “pirataria”, revelando um conflito latente entre, por um lado, práticas quotidianas dos utilizadores e, por outro, discursos das instituições. Centrado nos utilizadores comuns e nos seus consumos para usos privados e sem fins comerciais, a pirataria digital foi entendida com um pertinente fenómeno de circulação informal de cultura, reflexo e catalisador de transformações contemporâneas no campo dos media, quer das modalidades de mediação, acesso e distribuição em rede de recursos culturais e informacionais, bem como dos papéis e práticas dos consumidores e utilizadores de internet. A estratégia empírica, ancorada à realidade nacional, mobilizou um método misto explanatório e sequencial, desdobrado numa primeira abordagem longitudinal (2003-2013), mais quantitativa e extensiva e um nível de análise macro, recorrendo a uma série de seis inquéritos presenciais representativos da realidade portuguesa e um inquérito online (2014). Estes dados foram de seguida articulados, enquadrados e complementados com técnicas de cariz mais qualitativo no terreno, tais como, a observação etnográfica, quer online, quer offline, conversas informais e entrevistas a utilizadores de internet jovens e jovens-adultos. Como principal resultado revelou-se que a chamada pirataria digital em rede constitui um dos principais formatos de mediação, acesso e distribuição a recursos simbólicos na contemporaneidade, estando estes consumos informais não autorizados mesclados sincreticamente e de forma não problemática, mas sim normalizada, no quotidiano, a par com os consumos autorizados. Desta forma estes acessos formam grande parte da dieta mediática e cultural dos utilizadores portugueses de internet.This sociological research analysed the various modes of unauthorized online consumption and sharing of digital files. Those practices are socially classified, by many, as piracy, revealing a latent conflict between users' practices and institutional discourses. Focused on common users and private consumption for non-commercial uses, the approach for the study of this phenomenon was to analyse the informal circulation of culture as, both, a driver and a reflection of contemporary transformations in the media field, regarding whether formats of mediation, access and distribution of cultural and informational assets, as well as roles and practices of consumers and internet users. The empirical strategy, anchored to national reality, mobilized an explanatory sequential mixed method, deploying, first a longitudinal approach (2003-2013), using a series of six inperson surveys representative of the Portuguese reality and allowing a more extensive and macro level of analysis, combined with an online survey (2014). These findings were subsequently articulated and complemented with qualitative techniques, such as observation, whether online or offline, informal conversations and interviews with young and young-adult internet users. As main results, it was revealed that the so-called online digital piracy is one of the most important formats of contemporary processes of mediation, access and distribution of symbolic resources, and that unauthorized consumptions are merged, in an unproblematic routine, with authorized accesses and normalized in everyday life. These informal modalities of access constitute a great part of Portuguese internet users’ media and cultural diets