Demographic Factors Affecting Freshman Students' Attitudes towards Software Piracy: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The widespread use of computers and the Internet has provided many advantages to everyday life, but also created new opportunities for unethical and illegal acts such as software piracy. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that worldwide software piracy rate went up to 41 percent in 2008 and worldwide losses to software vendors due to software piracy totaled more than $50 billion in 2008 (BSA andIDC, 2009). Besides being an economic problem, software piracy is also an ethical issue, especially in academic settings. The evidences from numerous studies suggest that many undergraduate students consider software piracy and other unethical use of information technologies as an acceptable behavior.The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships between the demographic characteristics of freshman students and their attitudes towards software piracy. Data were obtained from a survey sample of 125 students in the Department of Business Administration at a public university in Turkey. The study found that overall attitudes of freshman students towards software piracy are close to neutral position on the Likert scale. The results of the regression analysis showed that monthly family income and duration of Internet usage in a week affected attitudes of freshman students towards software piracy, but to a lower extent.

Ethical and Legal Perspective of Software Piracy and Business Effects on the Illegal Use of Peer-to-Peer Systems Architecture

“…The result of the study supports the evidences from study of Acilar [17] that many undergraduate students consider software piracy and other unethical use of information technologies as an acceptable behavior. It is also observed by the researcher that most of the students stored music in there laptop and mobile device but didn't paid for the content.…”

Empirical Analysis of Software Piracy in Asia (Japan VS. Vietnam)

“…Country-based piracy studies have been actively conducted in recent years. Software piracy was found to significantly correlate to a country's economic factors, such as per capita GDP, income inequity, and also to Hofstede's cultural dimension of individualism (Acilar, 2010;Hsu & Su, 2008;Husted, 2000). Similar research found that countries with higher per capita GDP have lower piracy rates as compared to those with lower per capita GDP, and lack of price discrimination on the part of software vendors is one of the contributing factors in spreading piracy (Holsapple, Iyengar, Jin, & Rao, 2008;Gopal & Sanders, 2000).…”

“…The impact of demographic factors on piracy was also investigated in earlier studies as well (Jaeger, 2003;Lau, 2003;Rahim, Rahaman, & Seyal, 2000). Generally, demographic factors and collectivism (a dimension of national culture) seem to affect software piracy, although the findings are somewhat inconsistent and mixed (Acilar, 2010;Nill, Schibrowsky, & Peltier, 2010).…”

“…However, findings from the prior studies were not always consistent as they were conducted across different time frames and locations (Acilar, 2010;Nill and Shultz, 2009). In addition, researchers cannot guarantee that the findings from those studies can transcend different environments and national cultures, as many software piracy studies have been conducted within specific national cultures (Kariithi, 2011;Tan et.…”

“…Other concerns regarding prior research include small sample size and outdated macroeconomic data. Software piracy studies have focused extensively on Asia, including Hong Kong (Moores, & Dhillon, 2000), Singapore (Moores & Dhaliwal, 2004), Turkey (Acilar, 2010;Mishra, Akman, & Yazici, 2006), China (Chan and Lai, 2011;Rawlinson & Luption, 2007), Taiwan (Hsu & Su, 2008), and Jordan (Aleassa, Pearson, & McClurg, 2011). It is worthwhile to note, however, that excepting research done in China, other Asian studies were conducted in developed part of Asian countries (Kariithi, 2011) with relatively lower piracy rates (see Table 2).…”