Provide the citation and attach a pdf of the article (10 pts)
Kar Yan Tam, Katherine Yue Feng, & Samuel Kwan3. (2019). The role of morality in digital piracy: Understanding the deterrent and motivational effects of moral reasoning in different piracy contexts. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 20(5), 604–628. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00545
PDF: The Role of Morality in Digital Piracy_ Understanding the Deterr
What is the abstract of the article?
Digital piracy has been a chronic issue in intellectual property protection. With the prevalence of online technologies, digital piracy has become even more rampant, as digital resources can now be accessed and disseminated easily through the Internet. While the antecedents of piracy behaviors have been studied for years, previous studies often focus on a specific type of behavior or pirated content and the findings are far from conclusive. They do not paint a coherent picture of the impacts of antecedents. In this study, we focus on the role of morality by revealing the different levels of moral reasoning that can both deter and motivate users’ piracy intentions. Furthermore, we differentiate between two types of piracy behaviors (unauthorized copying/downloading vs. unauthorized sharing) and two categories of digital products (application software vs. music/movies), so that the differential impacts of the various antecedents can be assessed and articulated more clearly. We empirically evaluated the models in the four piracy contexts using a sample of 3,426 survey participants from a sizable IT-literate society. Our findings indicate the conflicting roles of morality in piracy intention and demonstrate its differential impacts across the two types of piracy behaviors, which can be generalized across the two categories of digital products. Our study sheds new light on end users’ considerations in accessing and disseminating unauthorized digital content. It also informs the design of copyright protection policies and sanction measures with different levels of specificity.
Was the study experimental or non-experimental? Explain, tell us what made that clear. (10 pts)
Experimental. This study was done by conducting a large-scale survey centered around 4 different contexts of piracy. The study focused on two types of piracy behaviors and two types of digital products. They focused on unauthorized copying/downloading of software, unauthorized copying downloading of music and movies, unauthorized sharing of software, and unauthorized sharing of music and movies (K. Yan Tam et al.). The study also explains how they used main focus group interviews as a means to draw conclusions.
Was the research qualitative or quantitative? Again, explain. (10 pts)
Quantitative, because the study had a large number of participants and the answers were measured on a Likert scale. The study also looked at yes or no type of questions which eliminates the possibility of qualitative data.
What was the population studied? Why do you say that? (5 pts)
Approximately 250,000 members of the e-government portal in Hong Kong
The study clearly lists in the second paragraph of heading 4, Empirical Analysis and 4.1 Study Design, “at the time of the survey, the portal had about 250,000 active members. Participants were invited to click on a hyperlink embedded in the invitation email to start the questionnaire”.
What sample was used for this study? Explain. (5 pts)
3,426 participants
Originally the entire population was 250,000 members of the e-government portal. Overall 3,786 people replied to the survey. In the third paragraph of heading 4.2, Measurement, it states that certain responses were excluded in the final study because some participants did not fully understand piracy or those who incorrectly answered simple questions. This is how they settled at 3,426.
What was the method of measurement? (10 pts)
The measurement scale used in my study is nominal. Based on the graphs used and reading the data it showed me there was no specific order, no differences between measurements (regarding rank), and there is no absolute zero.
What was the method of analysis? (10 pts)
The method of analysis used in this study was done by using partial least squares. This model is best suited for “theoretical development with rich data, which aims to maximize the explained variance in the outcome variables” (K. Yan Tam et al.). The study aimed to create a comprehensive framework to get a better understanding of piracy.
What was the conclusion of the study? (10 pts)
The conclusion of this study draws the conclusion that no matter income level or age the person committing piracy to know what they were doing was wrong and continued to do it anyway. This is a direct result of complex reasoning that crosses a few moral principles. The conclusion also says to consider contextual factors to have a more precise understanding of the underlying reasons one may commit piracy.
Why is this study useful to you? Explain in detail. (10 pts)
Honestly, I felt this article was more enlightening than anything. Piracy in today’s day and age happens a lot. I found it interesting to see the moral acceptability involved with piracy and why it happens so often. I found it not surprising that people know it is wrong but continue to pirate. There are a lot of factors that go into choosing whether to pirate, and this study showed the depth and complex factors that go into piracy.b
What would be the next logical step in extending this study? (10 pts)
If possible, a great step for this study would be to look at a different culture other than that of Hong Kong. Possibly extending the study to a few other different parts of the world like Hong Kong would add depth to the findings. On top of that, adding more classifications of things to pirate would create a deeper understanding of piracy. Also, reassuring the participants that their answers were to be confidential and that they would not be in trouble if they admitted to pirating.
Examining this same issue but in other countries would prove interesting results. It would most certainly show which countries are not prioritizing cybersecurity training enough while demonstrating countries with proper training overall.
Very cool journal review. I wonder if there is much selection bias with this study due to the fact that the study is about illegal activity. Will most people pirating software and media not respond to the survey because they don’t want to get caught?
This was very interesting to see what the participants responded with. Even when people knew it was wrong they still committed the crime. That I would say is very insightful, since with other crimes people might think about doing it but will not usually do it. I am guessing is that the people in the study really didn’t think it was a crime when the where doing it. Until later they find out what they where truly doing.
I believe this study would be a bit skewed since people wouldn’t want to admit that they have pirated content before or done so on purpose. I agree that reassuring the participants that their responses would be confidential would improve the accuracy of the survey. I also would like to see the survey conducted in another country and culture.
I think the finding that people will continue to pirate even if they know it is wrong is very similar to people going over the speed limit. They know that it is illegal to go over the speed limit, but they continue to do it since they aren’t likely to get pulled over as long as they don’t speed too much or if someone else is going faster than them. This is almost identical to this research survey’s findings. The people know that it is illegal to pirate content, but as long as they don’t pirate too much and if other people are pirating more than them, they don’t really have anything to worry about.
I’m in cybersecurity and the morality between theft and private property is an interesting one. Dependent on the country and nation your currently in sets the background for what rules and Copyrighted material are used. For example in the states you can be fined and prosecuted for stealing music, art, or other copyrighted property. But in China their is no such thing you can steal any show and sell them for a profit. Data like old school Sega rooms and other material have a huge market.
Just recently in another class we were on a topic of piracy and so seeing this post was awesome as the ideas are still some what fresh in my mind. We spoke about how certain people who pirate end up becoming dedicated actual paying customers for certain various programs, for example Adobe software. We can assume the only reasons they pirated in the first place were due to personal reasons and have since learned the value of the product and are willing to pay the price. I also agree with your thoughts about extending the study to other places to help increase it’s scope.
Interesting article to read as one of my possible career paths is protecting intellectual property and knowing that almost all of the people I know have pirated at least movies before in their life. As far as my thoughts go; pirating to most people, even though it is illegal, is a small enough and easy enough crime that they know they wont get caught and will continue to do it as long as it is simple.
I enjoyed reading your research experiment and thought the premise was very intriguing. Currently in todays world the accessibility of information is increasingly easy and that can be a good and bad thing. I like that your experiment tackles that issue!
Piracy has always been a thing even before the internet with piriated CD’s and DvD. The morality of piracy is an interesting topic that most people don’t really think about. Especially when they are trying to find a movie online to watch for free. This takes away revenue from the directors and actors that put their effort into making the movie. So from a moral stand point piracacy is wrong but yet so many people still do it. These site often make money through add making their own revenue by stealing other peoples hard work.
Sure you want to stick with this instead of, say, how audio effects impact viewer attention or interest? 😉