IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Software Piracy in the Workplace: A Model and Empirical Test |
| Author: | A Graham Peace [West Virginia University], Dennis F Galletta [University of Pittsburgh] and James Y L Thong [Hong Kong University of Science and Technology] |
| Source: | Journal of Management Information Systems 20, no. 1: 153-177 |
| Year: | 2003 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Piracy |
| Focus: | Software |
| Country/Territory: | United States of America |
| Objective: | To study attitudes and behaviour toward software piracy in the workplace. |
| Sample: | 201 working adults taking MBA evening classes |
| Methodology: | Questionnaire |
Main Findings
52% of respondents admitted to illegally copying software in the workplace at least once a year; 59.2% stated they had done so at least once. Only 6.5% indicated that they knew of an individual in their organisation who had been caught copying software illegally.
The study found that an individual’s intention to copy software illegally is determined by the following factors (starting with the most important factor):
- attitude toward software piracy (the more positive the attitude toward software piracy, the greater the intention to pirate)
- subjective norms of peers (the higher the level of peer norms supportive of software piracy, the greater the intention to pirate)
- perceived behavioural control (the greater the perception of being able to commit software piracy, the greater the intention to pirate; greater chance of being caught diminishes behavioural control)
The attitude toward software piracy is influenced by software cost (the higher software cost, the more positive attitude toward piracy is), punishment severity (the more severe punishment is, the more negative attitude toward piracy is), and punishment certainty (the more certain punishment is, the more negative attitude toward piracy is).
The study authors indicate that practices by anti-piracy agencies (e.g. providing sample corporate policies, piracy hotlines, auditing software, and publicising significant punishments) are validated by their results.
They recommend using deterrence as a tool to fight against software piracy: software-using organisations should raise personnel’s perceptions of the levels of punishment certainty/severity by instituting and publicising clear rules and significant punishments for illegal software copying. Strict enforcement is critical as perceptions matter: create and maintain an audit strategy, and perform regular audits of hard disks.
In view of the importance of software cost, price discrimination strategies/country-dependent pricing are recommended, especially for countries with low per capita GNP.
[Date Added: Oct 22, 2008 ]