Determinants of Worldwide Software Piracy

Abstract

Software piracy or ‘softlifting’, the unauthorized use or illegal copying of computer software seems to be a persistent and truly global phenomenon, in spite of international efforts to reduce it. Could the battle against it be won by just merely accepting international standards for the protection of intellectual property rights? The answer to this question is the main focus of this research. This paper explores the determinants of cross-national variation in software piracy rates by performing a quantitative analysis using economic, cultural and legal variables. Based on regression analysis results, we identified factors which have a significant impact on software piracy. Among them, economic and legal factors make the most important contribution to the variability of worldwide software piracy rates. The implications of these results both for practice and theory are discussed.