One Sail Fits All? A Psychographic Segmentation of Digital Pirates

Abstract

This paper focuses on segmenting digital movie and TV series pirates and on investigating the effectiveness of piracy-combatting measures i.e., legal and educational strategies, in light of these segments. To address these research objectives, two online studies were conducted. First, 1277 valid responses were gathered with an online survey. Four pirate segments were found based on differing combinations of attitude toward piracy, ethical evaluation of piracy and feelings of guilt. The anti-pirate, conflicted pirate, cavalier pirate, and die-hard pirate can be placed on a continuum of increasing pirating frequency, subjective norm, pirating self-efficacy, habit, and decreasing in perceived harm, respectively. The segments also differ in deontological and teleological orientations. Second, in an experimental mixed design, we find that the educational strategy is more effective than the legal strategy in lowering pirating intentions for the conflicted and cavalier pirate. However, both strategies fail at lowering intentions of the die-hard pirate, although perceived harm and perceived impunity were significantly influenced. These findings offer a more profound understanding of pirate segments and how they react differently to piracy-combatting measures. As a result, better strategies can be developed to control digital piracy.

Lowering the pirate flag: a TPB study of the factors influencing the intention to pay for movie streaming services

“…From a managerial perspective, our study suggests that the "conversion" of digital pirates into online buyers should be stimulated by both government policy and marketing communications which focus on ofering better value for consumers than illegal downloads or streaming. This is in line with recent contributions [28,70], who recommend strategies that provide a superior quality of alternatives than previously based coercion. Lastly, the signiicance of past behavior combined with the above-mentioned factors also highlights the need to further analyze the efectiveness of both social and economic rewards, also considering the diferences between light and heavy media users.…”

“…The literature has usually tackled this issue from the side of illegal downloading or streaming [69,88], by focusing only on the factors that inluence this dishonest behavior. In addition, legal sanctions seem to have had little impact on reducing digital piracy [24,28,29,70]. It is thus more efective to ind alternative ways to encourage purchases, rather than discouraging the illegal acquisition of media products.…”

The Access Model for Music and the Effect of Modification, Trial, and Sharing Usage Rights on Streaming Adoption and Piracy

“…However, some do not recognize a moral imperative because attributions of harm to artists or record labels does not resonate [66]. Indeed, not only do a substantial number of users not view digital piracy as harmful [25] a surprising number are unable to recognize it when they see it [80].…”

“…Given the many factors that influence digital piracy several strategies to address the issue are possible; however, selecting the right approach can be challenging because not all digital pirates are motivated in the same way. There are different psychographic profiles and digital pirates may respond differently to specific anti-piracy strategies [25].…”

“…Some have suggested that Internet service providers should work together with content providers to combat piracy, and this often does happen; however, under certain market conditions, the incentives to collaborate are sometimes insufficient [25]. Ultimately, the prevalence of digital piracy may simply reflect a market failure in that PROs are not offering consumers what they want and who are then motivated to seek alternatives [35].…”