Understanding the behavioral intention to digital piracy in virtual communities - a propose model

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the Internet in terms of the widespread acceptance and the increased bandwidth of connection, the situation of digital piracy has become increasingly serious. Due to increased prosecution by the authorities, we rarely find Web sites that provide copyrighted digital materials (music, movies, software, games, etc.) to download. Instead, end users share those copyrighted materials among themselves. This kind of peer-to-peer sharing is facilitated by the growth of virtual communities. Piracy in virtual communities has become a major trend. Our objective is to examine the behavioral intention of members in virtual communities to digital piracy under group settings by proposing a theoretical model.