Understanding the intentions behind illegal downloading: A comparative study of American and Korean college students
Introduction
Digital technology has revolutionized how people consume and exchange information. People can use, copy, and distribute digital content legally or illegally without spending additional cost or time. This revolutionary convenience raises a host of problems for copyright advocates, industry representatives, and governmental officials. Unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing sites are one of the examples of copyright issue. P2P file-sharing sites allow Internet users to bypass centrally controlled server-based services and enable them to download digital content directly from other users’ computers (Wang and McClung, 2011). For the past decade or so, more and more people (usually young) have used these sites to download or distribute digital copyrighted material illegally. A 2013 report by Columbia University’s American Assembly, a public policy institute, notes that 13% of US Internet users have used P2P file sharing sites and among the young under 30 the percentage was 20% (Karaganis and Renkema, 2013). According to an oft-cited report by the Institute for Policy Innovation, every year, illegal downloading causes the US economy to lose $58 billion in total output. Other losses include 373,375 jobs, and $2.6 billion in annual tax revenue.4 Given the economic effects of illegal downloading, file sharing has garnered the spotlight, causing copyright advocates, industry representatives, government officials, and scholars from various disciplines to seek a better understanding of the ramifications of illegal digital downloading.
Numerous studies have investigated illegal digital downloading (e.g., Cenite et al., 2009, Chang and Woo, 2010, Cronan and Al-Rafee, 2008, LaRose et al., 2005, Li and Nergadze, 2009). Few of them, however, investigated from a theoretical perspective the attitudinal components of illegal digital downloading (Wang and McClung, 2011). As Wang and McClung (2011) pointed out, most of the previous studies on illegal digital downloading have focused mainly on the economic impact or legal concerns surrounding such activities. Yet it is a person’s attitude about the legitimacy of certain behavior that will bear on whether he or she engages in that behavior.
Having internalized the norms, rules, and core values of a society, people from one culture are likely to share similar perceptions of their social environments (Hofstede, 1984). These shared perceptions—these cultural factors—are likely to influence people’s thinking about what behaviors are socially acceptable and what are not. This leads to the question, “Does a certain culture tend to produce a permissive attitude about illegal downloads?”. Little is known about this level of cultural differences, whether people from one culture are more inclined to use unauthorized P2P file-sharing sites than those from other culture. This study aims to fill this gap by comparing American and Korean college students’ attitudes and intentions regarding illegal digital downloading. The study applies the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) to the context of illegal downloading, adding some other variables (i.e., level of morality, perception of copyright, group norm, and moral norm) that may affect people’s intention to use unauthorized P2P file sharing sites.
Section snippets
Digital content downloading and file-sharing on P2P sites
Over the past decade, a great deal of literature has emerged examining file sharing as a mode of digital content distribution. By allowing computers to connect directly to each other, P2P technology has enabled Internet users to distribute and share, cost-effectively, digital content (Goel et al., 2010). This technology has raised such issues as copyright infringement and network traffic management. In response to the extensive use of P2P file exchanges among Internet users, copyright holders
Sample and procedure
This study focuses on college students. Previous studies have demonstrated that college-aged people are the most likely to engage in online piracy (e.g., Wagner, 2001). The main purpose of this research is not to draw generalizations about the broader public but to develop a better understanding of college students’ intentions to download digital content through P2P file sharing sites from a comparative perspective. Given the aim of this study, a convenience sampling method was adopted. It is
Results
In examining the first research question, a series of two-way ANOVAs were performed to determine if there are any differences in their intentions to download digital content through unauthorized P2P sites between the two groups depending upon their levels of perception of copyright protection and morality. Firstly, in order to see the differences in their levels of perception of copyright protection, a simple mean split method was used. American and Korean respondents were divided into two
Discussion
The goal of this research was to examine what factors predict college students’ intention to download digital content through unauthorized P2P file-sharing sites. This investigation adopted Wang and McClung’s (2011) attitude functional approach and tested its usefulness in two cultural contexts. It used the social norm approach (i.e., group norm and moral norm) to better understand intentions among American and Korean college students to illegally download digital content. Consistent with the
Limitations and implications
There are several limitations in this study. One is the sampling method. It is difficult to generalize the findings of this study to broader populations. Also, the respondents who participated in this study may not be representative of the target population. It should be noted that alpha coefficients for some variables were lower than .7. Although the current study took several variables (i.e., level of morality, level of perception of copyright protection, group norm, and moral norm) into
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions. We certify that no funding has been received for the conduct of this study.
References (52)
The theory of planned behavior
Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process.
(1991)- et al.
Predicting dishonest actions using the theory of planned behavior
J. Res. Pers.
(1991) - Ajzen, I., 2002. Constructing a theory of planned behavior questionnaire. Retrieved from...
- et al.
Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior
(1980) - et al.
The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior
- et al.
Digital piracy: factors that influence attitude toward behavior
J. Bus. Ethics
(2006) - et al.
Don’t blame the P2P file-sharers: the impact of free music downloads on the purchase of music CDs in Canada
J. Evol. Econ.
(2010) A Theory of Psychological Reactance
(1966)- et al.
More than just free content: motivations of peer-to-peer file sharers
J. Commun. Inq.
(2009) - et al.
A comparative study between Korean and Chinese college students on behavioral intention of the illegal contents download
Korean J. Journalism Commun. Stud. (in Korean)
(2010)
A study on intention to using paid online news contents of daily newspapers among college students: with a focus on recognition of copyright and paid news contents, evaluation of newsworthiness, and expanded theory of planned behaviors
Korean J. Journalism Commun. Stud. (in Korean)
A focus theory of normative conduct: recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public spaces
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Alcohol and intentions to use condoms: applying the theory of planned behavior
Psychology and Health
Factors that influence the intentions to pirate software and media
J. Bus. Ethics
Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research
Wired shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture
The impact of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing on the media industry
Calif. Manag. Rev.
Does social learning theory condition the effects of low self-controal on college students’ software piracy?
J. Econ. Crime Manag.
Digital piracy: assessing the contributions of an integrated self-control theory and social learning theory using structural equation modeling
Crim. Justice Stud.
Culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival
The functional approach to the study of attitudes
Public Opin. Quarterly
Getting up on the download: college students’ motivations for acquiring music via the web
New Media Soc.
Sharing or piracy? An exploration of downloading behavior
J. Comput. mediated Commun.
The effect of cyber-harmfulness factors upon juvenile cyber delinquency: an analysis through structural equation model (SEM)
J. Cybercommun. Acad. Soc. (in Korean)
Cited by (30)
Digital piracy among consumers in a developing economy: A comparison of multiple theory-based models
2020, Journal of Retailing and Consumer ServicesCitation Excerpt :Two other studies among 503 computer users in China and 584 Internet surfers in Taiwan reported that subjective norm has a significant positive influence on intention to pirate software (Chan et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2009). Furthermore, subjective norm was also found to be significantly related to the intention to illegally download digital materials through peer-to-peer file-sharing sites on a sample of college-aged people (Sang et al., 2015) and the intention to download music illegally on a group of undergraduate students (Plowman and Goode, 2009). In line with this discussion, we put forward the following hypothesis:
Correlates of participation in e-book piracy on campus
2019, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipCitation Excerpt :Compared to the United States, the enforcement of laws and regulations in Asian countries has been ineffective in curbing pirating behavior (Hill, 2007). In a comparative study by Sang, Lee, Kim, and Woo (2015), while a negative relationship was found between perception of copyright protection and intention for illegal downloading of copyrighted content via peer-to-peer file-sharing sites among both American and Korean college students, a link between concern for one's risk of getting caught and intention for illegal downloading was significant only for American students. This is sensible given that digital piracy would become more prevalent if there is a lack of regulatory oversight that allows adequate protection of intellectual property and enforcement of sanctions.
Predictors of digital piracy among Turkish undergraduate students
2018, Telematics and InformaticsCitation Excerpt :In addition to confirmed relationships across attitudes, behaviors and intentions, the study underlined the contribution of perceived risks in helping individuals to avoid digital piracy. The framework was successfully used in further studies where the focus was digital movie piracy (Phau et al., 2014), software piracy (Peace et al., 2003) or unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing (Sang et al., 2015). Correlations between habits and attitudes have been validated in other studies as well (Aarts and Dijksterhuis, 2000; Gupta et al., 2004).
Giving in or giving up: What makes journalists use audience feedback in their news work?
2017, Computers in Human BehaviorCitation Excerpt :A way to extend and enrich TPB is for researchers to examine how intention leads to behavior in a variety of different situations (Conner & Armitage, 1998). While the theory successfully works in the context of behavior and technology (e.g., Sang, Lee, Kim, & Woo, 2015), no prior research applies TPB to journalism and, in particular, journalists' behavior. The TPB framework brings together predictors of behavior across different levels of analysis as outlined by the hierarchy of influences model.
Examining the effects of utilities and involvement on intentions to engage in digital piracy
2016, Computers in Human BehaviorCitation Excerpt :Wang and McClung (2011) corroborate these findings by showing that utilitarian motivations related to costs and availability positively influence illegal digital downloading intentions. Likewise, Sang, Lee, Kim, and Woo (2015) provide evidence of a significant positive impact of the utilitarian function of attitudes, encompassing cost and availability, on intention to pirate digital content. Somewhat similar is Yoon's (2011) support for a significant positive impact of usefulness (perceived benefits in terms of saving money, time, possessing more, and improving work performance) on the intention to commit digital piracy.