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

2. 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

3. Why do people file share unlawfully?
UFS

4. 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

5. Why do people file share unlawfully?

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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?

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Thanks for your attention!