Book Piracy Behavior among College Students in Indonesia

Abstract

Piracy, or the counterfeiting of a product, remains an important global issue. This research aims to examine the factors that influence university students’ intention in the piracy of academic books. The research conducted is based on previous attitudes toward piracy behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Piracy is both unethical and illegal, and this study develops the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by adding ethics theory addressing moral obligation and perceived benefits and deterrence theory dealing with fear of legal consequences and perceived likelihood of punishment. The research method used in this research is the purposive random sampling technique; online questionnaires are distributed using Google Forms. A total of 293 college students complete the questionnaires. The results of the study show that affect, moral obligation, and perceived benefits have a significant effect on attitude toward pirating academic books. Attitude, habitual conduct, and moral obligation also have a significant effect on intention to pirate. In contrast, fear of legal consequences and perceived likelihood of punishment have no significant effect on attitude toward piracy of academic books. The results of this study can serve as input for the book publishing industry, copyright holders, and the government in efforts to cooperate with other countries to overcome the academic book piracy that has occurred in Indonesia.