IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Determinants of Digital Piracy among Youth in South Africa |
| Author: | Jean-Paul Van Belle, Brandan Macdonald and David Wilson [University of Cape Town] |
| Source: | Communications of the IIMA 7, no. 3: 47-64 |
| Year: | 2007 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Piracy |
| Focus: | Film, Music, Software |
| Country/Territory: | South Africa |
| Objective: | To investigate digital piracy and the factors that affect it among the South African youth. |
| Sample: | 225 university students aged between 17 and 25 |
| Methodology: | Questionnaire |
Main Findings
Over 80% of respondents pirate music at least “infrequently” (only 17% report never pirating music); nearly 70% do so for films (just 30% affirm never pirating videos), and 72% do so for software (just 28% report never pirating software).
The study finds that piracy intention (probability of pirating that the respondents indicate: 75% for music, 73% for software, and 60% for film) is influenced by the following factors:
- affordability (the less affordable respondents feel software, video or music is, the more likely they are to pirate)
- attitude towards piracy [the more positive the respondent’s feelings towards piracy, the greater the likelihood to pirate. The attitude towards software/film piracy is influenced by the legal environment (awareness of legal issues surrounding software/film piracy), and towards software/music piracy by individuals’ belief system (religious or spiritual values). No evidence was found that attitudes towards piracy are influenced by personal environment, awareness of consequences, societal environment or personal values]
- perceived behavioural control (the more people think that they are able to engage in piracy, the more likely are they to do so)
- convenience (the more convenient it is to acquire goods through piracy relative to legal acquisition, the more people intend to pirate)
Ego strength (strength of one’s conviction or self-regulating skills: the more lax individual convictions are, the more likely a greater piracy intention is) is found to influence software piracy intention; and personal normative beliefs (an individual’s moral obligation to/not to perform an act) are found to influence film/music piracy intention.
How strongly these factors actually influence the intention to pirate depends on their perceived importance and on the organisational ethical environment (where respondents feel the organisational environment is more tolerant of piracy, piracy intention increases).
In turn, piracy intention influences piracy behaviour (actual piracy behaviour conducted by the respondents), moderated by available enabling technology: people with piracy intention are more likely to actually engage in piracy if the necessary technology to pirate digital content is available (valid for software and film piracy, but not for music piracy whose degree is not affected by the availability of enabling technology).
The following implications for industry are highlighted: rightholders cannot afford to focus solely on piracy awareness and prevention efforts – they need to understand why consumers pirate goods and use some of these same motivating factors against piracy.
[Date Added: Oct 22, 2008 ]