Knowledge of Software Piracy as an Antecedent to Reducing Pirating Behavior

Abstract

We set out to answer the question: Can legislative and educational outreach programs reduce the level of software piracy? Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, we hypothesize that knowledge of software piracy promoted by these campaigns will lead to increased awareness of the legal consequences of engaging in software piracy and the likelihood of being punished. These two constructs, in turn, will impact on one's attitude towards software piracy, and hence, on the level of one's pirating behavior. We test the model using a sample of U.S. business students and find strong support for the model, with an understanding of the number of jobs lost due to software piracy being the dominant factor. This suggests that decision makers in the software industry need to refocus educational outreach programs from stressing the illegality of copyright infringement to emphasizing the social consequences of such behavior.