IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | The Morality of Software Piracy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis |
| Author: | William R Swinyard and Heikki Rinne [Brigham Young University], Ah Keng Kau [National University of Singapore] |
| Source: | Journal of Business Ethics 9, no. 8: 655-664 |
| Year: | 1990 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Piracy |
| Focus: | Software |
| Country/Territory: | Singapore, United States of America |
| Objective: | To find out whether and how cross-cultural differences affect morality and behaviour toward software piracy. |
| Sample: | 371 student subjects: 221 attending a major western US university and 150 attending the National University of Singapore |
| Methodology: | Questionnaire |
Main Findings
While copyright and patent protection are deeply rooted in Western culture, in the cultural history of Asia the notion of protecting creative work is not generally supported. The study suggests that US and Singaporean attitudes and intentions concerning software piracy indeed are a reflection of these cultural differences: in comparison to their US peers, Singaporean students turned out to be more knowledgeable about software copyright law; however, they are less supportive of copyright laws and significantly more inclined to pirate software.
An additional factor explaining the seemingly more casual Asian attitude toward copying is moral decision making: while Americans tend to take moral decisions on a rule-oriented basis (criterion: legality of copying), Asians have a more circumstance-oriented, utilitarian moral decision-making logic (criterion: outcomes or benefits of copying), making them less prone to generally respect copyright laws.
The authors thus believe that strong support for copyright legislation is probably not quickly forthcoming in Asia, and expect little voluntary compliance until Asian cultural norms change.
[Date Added: Aug 12, 2008 ]