Online Piracy versus Policy and Cultural Influencers

Abstract

Online piracy is one of the most challenging problems faced by the software and entertainment industries today. Tens of billions of dollars of copyrighted commercial material is exchanged illegally annually due to peer-to-peer networking sites and other downloadable methods, while it is also estimated that digital theft of copyrighted content makes up over 20% of the Internet traffic worldwide (Envisional, 2011; RIAA, 2014). The objective of this study is the analysis of the key country level factors that influence the national piracy rate, which can help practitioners, academics and policy makers. We use a mixed-method approach, with a qualitative study to identify the key online piracy legal issues and macro level antecedents in online consumer discussions. Further, we use the Hunt-Vitell General Theory of Marketing Ethics as a theoretical basis and empirically analyze the importance of cultural, legal and policy variables that are part of different national institutions and systems. Overall, the significance found for our model underlines the fact that numerous factors that are related to a country’s cultural values, ethical system and legal system can contribute or deter individuals from illegally sharing and downloading copyrighted electronic content and information.