Fighting Software Piracy: Which Governance Tools Matter in Africa?

This article integrates previously missing components of government quality into the governance-piracy nexus in exploring governance mechanisms by which global obligations for the treatment of IPRs are effectively transmitted from international to the national level in the battle against piracy. It assesses the best governance tools in the fight against piracy and upholding of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The instrumentality of IPR laws (treaties) in tackling piracy through good governance mechanisms is also examined. Findings demonstrate that: (1) while all governance tools under consideration significantly decrease the incidence of piracy, corruption-control is the most effective weapon; (2) but for voice and accountability, political stability and democracy, IPR laws (treaties) are instrumental in tackling piracy through government quality dynamics of rule of law, regulation quality, government effectiveness, corruption-control, and press freedom. Hence, the need for a policy approach most conducive to expanding development is to implement an integrated system of both IPRs and corollary good governance policies. Moreover, our findings support the relevance of good governance measures in developing countries wishing to complement their emerging IPR regimes.     

The Impact of National Culture on Software Piracy

This paper examines the impact of the level of economic development, income inequality, and five cultural variables on the rate of software piracy at the country level. The study finds that software piracy is significantly correlated to GNP per capita, income inequality, and individualism. Implications for anti-piracy programs and suggestions for future research are developed.     

Global Software Piracy: Searching for Further Explanations

This paper identifies that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a negative effect on software piracy rates in addition to consolidating prior research that economic development and the cultural dimension of individualism also negatively affect piracy rates. Using data for 59 countries from 2000 to 2005, the findings show that economic well-being, individualism and technology development as measured by ICT expenditures explain between 70% and 82% of the variation in software piracy rates during this period. The research results provide important implications for policy makers and business practitioners to help reduce software piracy.

Considerations in Ethical Decision-Making and Software Piracy

Individuals are faced with the many opportunities to pirate. The decision to pirate or not may be related to an individual's attitudes toward other ethical issues. A person's ethical and moral predispositions and the judgments that they use to make decisions may be consistent across various ethical dilemmas and may indicate their likelihood to pirate software. This paper investigates the relationship between religion and a theoretical ethical decision making process that an individual uses when evaluating ethical or unethical situations. An ethical decision making model was studied for general unethical scenarios and for the unethical behavior of software piracy. The research model was tested via path analysis using structural equation modeling and was found to be appropriate for the sample data. The results suggest that there is a relationship between religion and the stages of an ethical decision making process regarding general ethical situations and software piracy.     

Fighting Software Piracy: Some Global Conditional Policy Instruments

This study examines the efficiency of tools for fighting software piracy in the conditional distributions of software piracy. Our paper examines software piracy in 99 countries over the period 1994–2010, using contemporary and non-contemporary quantile regressions. The intuition for modelling distributions contingent on existing levels of software piracy is that the effectiveness of tools against piracy may consistently decrease or increase simultaneously with the increasing levels of software piracy. Hence, blanket policies against software piracy are unlikely to succeed unless they are contingent on initial levels of software piracy and tailored differently across countries with low, medium and high levels of software piracy. Our findings indicate that GDP per capita, research and development expenditure, main intellectual property laws, multilateral treaties, bilateral treaties, World Intellectual Property Organisation treaties, money supply and respect for the rule of law have negative effects on software piracy. Equitably distributed wealth reduces software piracy, and the tendency not to indulge in software piracy because of equitably distributed wealth increases with the increasing software piracy levels. Hence, the negative degree of responsiveness of software piracy to changes in income levels is an increasing function of software piracy. Moreover, the relationships between policy instruments and software piracy display various patterns: U-shape, Kuznets-shape, S-shape and negative thresholds. A negative threshold represents negative estimates with the increasing negative magnitude throughout the conditional distributions of software piracy. We also discuss the policy implications of our study.     

Investigating Software Piracy in Jordan: An Extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action

Software piracy, the illegal and unauthorized duplication, sale, or distribution of software, is a widespread and costly phenomenon. According to Business Software Alliance (2008), over 41% of the PC software packages installed worldwide were unauthorized copies. Software piracy behavior has been investigated for more than 30 years. However, after a review of the relevant literature, there appears to be two voids in this literature: a lack of studies in non-Western countries and a scarcity of process studies. This study contributes to literature by developing a software piracy model to better understand the decision-making process that underlies this unethical behavior. The model was tested using data collected from a sample of 323 undergraduate business students. Consistent with the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), attitudes toward software piracy and subjective norms were significant predictors of intention to pirate software. Also, the results suggested that ethical ideology, public self-consciousness, and low self-control moderated the effect of these variables on intention to pirate software. The results have important practical implications for the software industry and governments hoping to curtail software piracy. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future studies are discussed as well.     

Exploring Cognitive Moral Logics Using Grounded Theory: The Case of Software Piracy

The article reports findings of a study conducted to explore the cognitive moral logics used for considering software piracy as ethical or unethical. Since the objective was to elicit the moral logics from the respondents, semi-structured in-depth interviews of 38 software professionals of India were conducted. The content of the interviews was analyzed using the grounded theory framework which does not begin with constructs and their interlinkages and then seek proof instead it begins with an area of study and allows them to emerge from that area of study. Given the objective of exploring moral logics, grounded theory seemed an appropriate choice. Results revealed that 21 respondents considered software piracy unethical whereas 17 did not. Though economic reasons formed the most fundamental logic in both the cases, an overall analysis revealed that the respondents mostly used moral justification (neutralization) for not considering software piracy unethical whereas those considering it unethical used normative (principled) logics. The interconnections among logics are analyzed and results are discussed along with the limitations of the study.     

To Blow or not to Blow: An Experimental Study on the Intention to Whistleblow on Software Piracy

Using the Behavioral Reasoning Theory, we examine the factors that determine individuals' attitudes toward and intentions to whistleblow on the use of pirated software. A scenario-based experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the relationship between the potential whistleblower and wrongdoing party as well as the monetary incentive and the level of legal protection provided to the whistleblowers. Results suggest that the relationship with the company and legal protection had moderating effects on the relationship between whistleblowing attitude and intention. The study provides theoretical understanding regarding whistleblowing behavior in the context of software piracy as well as numerous managerial implications for the stakeholders of the software industry.     

Ripped from the Headlines: What can the Popular Press Teach us about Software Piracy?

Software piracy is an instance of unauthorized duplication of information goods where laws and norms are not agreed-upon. This article presents a content analysis of articles from the five highest circulating U.S. newspapers 1989–2004 as evidence of the prevailing social environment surrounding software piracy. The rationales in the news articles are analyzed as evidence of the social and psychological underpinnings of attitudes toward software piracy. An expanded version of Sykes and Matza’s (American Sociological Review 22, 664–670, 1957); Zamoon and Curley (Working paper, Kuwait University, Kuwait, 2007) neutralization framework is applied to analyze the content of the articles. We found that rationales condoning piracy showed a more balanced use of neutralization approaches, and less moral intensity toward the behavior. In contrast, rationales condemning piracy mostly promoted the injury aspect of software piracy, and suggested higher moral intensity. The discrepancies have practical implications as a barrier to the ability to connect the two sides of the debate concerning software piracy.     

Shaping of Moral Intensity Regarding Software Piracy: A Comparison Between Thailand and U.S. Students

Software piracy is a major global concern forbusinesses that generate their revenues throughsoftware products. Moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy has been argued to be relatedto the extent of software piracy. Anunderstanding of the development of moralintensity regarding software piracy inindividuals would aid businesses in developingand implementing policies that may help themreduce software piracy. In this research westudied the similarities and differences indevelopment of moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy among university students intwo different cultures, the U.S. and Thailand. In particular, we studied the influence of theimmediate community of individuals, such asother students, faculty, and other universityemployees, on the development of moralintensity regarding software piracy of the twogroups of students. Results indicate that, ingeneral, there are significant differences inmoral intensity regarding software piracybetween students from the US and Thailand, andthat gender differences also exist. Though theeffect of the immediate community on theself-perception of moral intensity regardingsoftware piracy of students was significant,there appears to be very little significantdifferences in this effect between the studentsin the two different countries studied. Thefindings have implications for teachingbusiness ethics, and for developing andimplementing policies to curb global softwarepiracy.     

Piracy on File-sharing Networks: Strategies for Recording Companies

In this article, we study the impact on piracy of selling music as downloadable files and the strategies that recording companies should adopt to increase profits. We find that total music sales and profits of firm (recording company) are higher, and total piracy (demand on file-sharing networks) is lower when the firm sells a downloadable version of a music track. We also look at the firm's optimal level of digital rights management (DRM) protection. We found that revenue decreases with increased protection. It is therefore optimal for the firm not to employ any DRM protection in the absence of network externality (NE). Listening to music or watching videos protected by DRM is cumbersome to users because they have to download license files and there are restrictions on the number of times the file can be copied and on the type of devices that can play the file. As a result, DRM protection is a disutility to the legal consumer and the firm must charge lower prices with more DRM protection. When NE is high and a nominal search cost is above a certain threshold, then non-zero protection becomes optimal.     

An Analysis of the Impact of Economic Wealth and National Culture on the Rise and Fall of Software Piracy Rates

A number of studies have investigated and found a significant relationship among economic wealth, Hofstede’s national culture dimensions, and software piracy rates (SPR). No study, however, has examined the relationship between economic wealth, culture, and the fact that national SPRs have been declining steadily since 1994. Using a larger sample than has previously been available (57 countries), we confirm the expected negative relationship between economic wealth, culture (individualism and masculinity) and levels of software piracy. The rate of decline in software piracy, however, is found to be a cultural phenomenon, with two factors (power distance (PDI) and uncertainty avoidance (UAI)) working in opposition. Similar results are found for a subset of 37 relatively poor countries. This suggests that, while the rise in economic wealth seen for most countries should lead to a reduction in software piracy, the rate of decline is determined by cultural factors. Global strategies for dealing with software piracy are discussed.     

WTO公布中美知识产权案专家组裁决

2009年1月29日，WTO公布了外界企盼已久的美国诉中国知识产权保护和执行案争端解决专家组报告。专家组裁定中国的部分版权和商标政策违反了与贸易有关的知识产权多边规则。     

Timing Movie Release on the Internet in the Context of Piracy

Offering movies on the Internet is one way of combating the issue of online movie piracy, although the tradeoff is the cannibalization of the more revenue-generating channels. Given this tradeoff and the rather unique “staggered window distribution” mechanism followed by the movie industry, this article addresses the problem of when the studio owner should release the movie online to maximize the entire revenue stream of that movie. A general modeling approach that assumes an exponential demand function and fixed release times in the remaining channels is provided. Detailed illustration using three different movie types demonstrates that a high revenue-generating movie should be released online just prior to its home video release, while the online release of an average or below-average movie should coincide with their withdrawal from the theaters. Sensitivity analyses of the results are also displayed and give the circumstances under which a different online release time is warranted. The analysis suggests, among other things, that if a movie has an excellent opening strength and is able to sustain its revenues quite well, it would be more profitable to release the movie online a few weeks before it is withdrawn from the theaters. Additionally, the standard outcomes generated by the model are found to be sensitive to any online per-unit price change.     

出口贸易对我国经济增长效用的地区差异性研究

出口对经济增长效用的发挥受到许多条件制约，鉴于我国经济发展水平及结构在地域上呈现分化态势，针对单一省(市)的实证评价更显得意义重大。本文采用协整VAR模型以省(市)为单位检验了出口贸易和省(市)经济增长之间的协整关系、长期均衡关系、因果关系以及出口贸易对经济增长的作用渠道，并最终为出口贸易在我国各省(市)与经济增长之间因果关系、长期均衡关系及作用渠道的差异性分布提供解释。     

Reflecting on the Common Discourse on Piracy and Intellectual Property Rights: A Divergent Perspective

The common discourse on intellectual property rights rests mainly on utilitarian ground, with implications on the question of justice as well as moral significance. It runs like this: Intellectual property rights are to reward the originators for his/her intellectual labour mainly in monetary terms, thereby providing incentives for originators to engage in future innovative labouring. Without such incentives, few, if not none, will engage in creative activities and the whole human community will, thereby, suffer because of reduced inventions. However, such utilitarian argument on piracy as de-motivation may not be necessarily justified. In fact, intellectual property arrangement is one among different institutions concerning how the society may handle new ideas and creative works. In reality, private ownership over one’s intellectual product is merely a modern western concept that is being ‹advertised’ as being normative, which, by itself, is highly debatable. Alarming still, such normative argument assumes both justness and moral dimensions. This article will analyse whether such argument is philosophically sound.     

Theory of Planned Behavior and Ethics Theory in Digital Piracy: An Integrated Model

Since digital piracy has posed a significant threat to the development of the software industry and the growth of the digital media industry, it has, for the last decade, held considerable interest for researchers and practitioners. This article will propose an integrated model that combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and ethics theory, the two theories that are most often used in digital piracy studies. Data were obtained from university students in China, and the model was examined using the structural equation model (SEM). The results show that moral obligation and justice, derived from ethics theories and TPB variables, such as attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, influence the behavioral intentions of individuals to commit digital piracy. The attitude of individuals toward digital piracy is also found to be influenced by perceived benefits, perceived risk, and habit.     

Productivity Accounting in Vertically (Hyper‐)integrated Terms: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Empirics

The present paper is a methodological contribution introducing a disaggregated physical productivity accounting framework in vertically (hyper‐)integrated terms, establishing a direct correspondence between Supply–Use Tables and Pasinetti's (1973, 1988) theoretical magnitudes. As an empirical application, we computed productivity indicators and indexes of direction of technical change at the subsystem level for the case of Italy during 1999–2007. Our findings suggest that: (a) only 60 per cent of productivity growth accrued to real wages, (b) the degree of mechanization increased, (c) the most dynamic subsystems correspond to consolidated sectors, and (d) technical change has almost always been capital intensity increasing.     

生态学变迁：从崇拜自然征服自然到协调自然

近年来,生态学原理不断扩展到经济、管理、金融乃至人文、政治等社会科学领域,用来诠释社会经济现象和行为,但仍然存在一些误区与偏差。为此,可以从历史分析的角度,探索生态学理论变迁的路径,透析人类自然观、价值观的整体变化。