UNAUTHORIZED ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION

Unauthorized Electronic Distribution



ABSTRACT

There is no doubt that Unauthorized Electronic Distribution has been the biggest factor currently affecting the electronic industry. The industry attributes the decline in sales to this practice and has focused its resources on trying to limit it through punitive measures. This study attempts to identify some of the motivations that lead consumers to purchase digital content illegally. We have evaluated ethical and cultural aspects related to practice piracy. As expected, price factors and disagreement with the industry performance in terms of income distribution are important factors for consumers when deciding how to acquire music. There can be evidenced those cultural factors that make some countries most prone to such practices, ethical considerations, but they traditionally perceive that knowledge must be managed. It had recommended industry to develop distribution strategies, to embrace change technology beyond the limit, while for the artists encouraged use financing mechanisms to link marketing and consumer to induce loyalty and reduce risk.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION4

1.1 Background of the Study4

1.2 Importance of the Research5

1.3 Current Situation5

1.4 Problem Statements6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW7

2.1 Ethics, Attitude and Piracy7

2.2 Role of Internet10

2.3 Digital Product Acquisition11

2.4 Proposed Model12

2.5 Illegal Internet Streaming of Copyrighted Content18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY22

3.1 Introduction22

3.2 Research Approach23

3.3 Research Strategy23

3.4 Research Sample24

3.5 Collection of Data25

Figure 1: Types of questionnaire27

3.6 Triangulation27

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS29

4.1 Data Analysis29

4.2 Analysis of the Findings34

4.3 Situation Analysis35

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS38

5.1 Conclusion38

5.2 Recommendations39

REFERENCES42

APPENDICES46

Questionnaire46

Piracy is a social evil46

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The technological advances of the information age have given society an unheralded access to products and services, democratized their distribution, and facilitated their consumption (Gupta, 2004). Yet for users such changes have expanded the range of options available to acquire what they desire, making it almost as easy to acquire products through unauthorized electronic distribution as legally. The unauthorized electronic distribution of digital products is alarmingly common. Global sales of recorded music fell by around 30 per cent from 2004 to 2009 (IFPI, 2010). This drop can be largely attributed to the impact of digital unauthorized electronic distribution, with past investigations indicating that over half of university students in the US download music without paying for it (Gupta, 2004). Unauthorized electronic distribution rates have begun to undermine the commercial foundations of some of the industries producing digital products, which have struggled to adapt to the digital age. In this paper, digital unauthorized electronic distribution refers to the unauthorised or unlicensed acquisition of digital products, where acquisition covers both downloading products and streaming content, in addition to types of acquisition, not conducted over the Internet, such as copying files from friends. Responding to the changing environment, scholars seeking to explain and predict digital unauthorized electronic distribution applied theories and models from social psychology, criminology, and business ethics, primarily using intention frameworks as foundations for their research.

1.2 Importance of the Research

While we acknowledge the importance of this research to explain the individual determinants of unauthorized electronic distribution behavior, we contend that this body of research limited in two fundamental ways: it ...