Determinants of Unlawful File Sharing Steven Watson, Daniel Zizzo and Piers Fleming

Scoping Review of Existing Research 54,441 articles: Academic Literature Keyword Search Abstracts Screened -> Text Screened 206 included articles 122 articles: Companies and Organisations (e.g. OFCOM) Empirical, primary data about people’s unlawful file sharing of digital media 2003-2013

Why do people file share unlawfully? UFS

Proximity to actual behaviour Outcome Measure Definition Qualitative research Explorations of perceptions of or engagement in behaviors without quantitative assessment. Stated preferences and attitudes Outcome is at the level of how good or bad, right or wrong, or preferable an action is perceived to be Intentions to perform behavior Outcome described participants reports of behavior that they plan to engage in in the future Willingness to pay (WTP) Outcome represents the amount of money that a participant states they are willing to pay in order to obtain a good Stated behavior Outcome represents a participant’s report of behavior that has been engaged in in the past, such as from a survey Observed behavior Outcome represents behavior that is either directly observed at the level of the individual, such as in an experiment, or else at the population level, such as from sales data

Why do people file share unlawfully?

Sales and Unlawful File Sharing (UFS) 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association Sales Unlawful file sharing Replace/ Generate UFS may replace sales, e.g. anecdotally the emergence of Napster coincided with a decline in music sales (Liebowitz, 2006) Most evidence suggests potential sales of music and movies are decreased by UFS. However, UFS may generate sales by promoting interest. There is strong evidence that for individuals more UFS is associated with more actual sales.

Financial & Legal Utility Lower Prices Less strict laws 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association Lower WTP Sales Unlawful file sharing Less Perceived Deterrent Replace/ Generate Stronger laws appear to reduce unlawful file sharing, but effect may be temporary and limited behavioral data confirming causal legal effect Many people are unaware of what is lawful (Ofcom, 2011) or it doesn’t feel like a crime (BMRB Social Research, 2009). High prices appear to reduce sales, lower willingness to pay for content is associated with UFS

Experiential Utility 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association Interest Sales Unlawful file sharing Replace/ Generate Unlawful file sharing may be influenced by a desire to sample new content, to access niche content, to build a collection or general interest in the content UFS provides access to difficult to find content (Sandulli, 2007; Mateus & Peta, 2008)

Technical Clear effects of availability 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association Long release lag (availability) Sales Unlawful file sharing Replace/ Generate (Physical Sales) Closing file sharing sites Ability to file share Access to internet Clear effects of availability Initial barrier to unlawful file sharing?

Others beliefs and behaviour Social Utility Others beliefs and behaviour 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association Sales Unlawful file sharing Replace/ Generate Correlation UFS and peer UFS ... But need observed behavioural and causal evidence

Moral Utility Correlation UFS and moral beliefs 40-60% of evidence > 60% of evidence -ve association UFS is immoral Sales Unlawful file sharing Replace/ Generate UFS enhances social welfare UFS doesn’t cause harm Correlation UFS and moral beliefs ... But need observed behavioural and causal evidence

Experiment Participants had the choice to purchase legally, obtain without paying or do nothing The risk and penalty of being caught was known and varied across trials Goods came from a producer who made a profit if they were paid for Preliminary findings: Risk preferences matter, financial and legal consequences matter, if the producer had put in a lot of effort to make the product UFS was lower.

Conclusions Understanding the why of file sharing is essential to understand the how of changing file sharing from a policy viewpoint Legal and financial are important But so are moral, social, technical and experiential Future research should consider multiple factors and specific media.

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