Teston, G. (2008) Software Piracy among Technology Education Students: Investigating Property Rights in a Culture of Innovation. Journal of Technology in Education. Vol.20, No.1 Retrieved from: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v20n1/pdf/teston.pdf
Summary:
The computer has become ubiquitous in almost every facet of life including education, industry, and research. Despite the overwhelming presence of computers and software use, there is a concern that the ethics surrounding software use have been largely ignored in most technology education classes. It is estimated that illegal copies of commercial software comprised a loss to software companies of $39.6 billion in 2006 and one need look no further than the headlines of popular newspapers and news websites to gain evidence of legal battles and lawsuits over piracy. It is estimated that one out three software installations circumvented purchase in 2006, which is an alarming statistic and may jeopardize the future of software development on an economic basis. To understand the basis of the piracy phenomena, it is useful to explore the formation of ethics in development. Children’s perception of ethics in association with theft is usually tied to physical property and intellectual property is often left out of the discussion in formulating a sense of ethics.
This study focused on the attitudes of two different groups, one that viewed piracy as legal and one that viewed it as illegal. Surprisingly, both groups viewed software as public property at the same rate (54.0% pro-piracy, 53.9% anti) and 60.3% of respondents indicated that the manufacture does not retain property rights to software. The pro-piracy group showed a dramatic increase in the belief that others’ welfare is not affected by theft of software. Across both samples, only 9.7% advocated stealing a physical item (a bike) given a scenario, while 69.2% thought that using copyrighted pictures was acceptable and 68.3% had copied cd’s for personal use without purchase. Of those that had copied cd’s, 89.3% had moral reasoning in not stealing the bike in the given scenario. Overall, the study also found that 16% of those who morally object to piracy still do it, even though they clearly know that it is stealing. This study quantifies the disconnection between actions and beliefs of certain individuals as well as the disparity between views of physical versus intellectual property.
Reaction:
This is an interesting study and something that I’ve often personally considered with the rise of downloading and filesharing websites. I was just talking to my teenage son about this issue and he tends to fall somewhere in the middle, but still cites the reason that “big corporations aren’t hurt by losing $20 for the software anyway.” In some ways, I agree with him. I asked him to compare the issue of copying software to photocopying books and he astutely pointed out that there are libraries for borrowing books, but not for borrowing software and that you could lend a book to a friend; many commercial software companies now limit installations to a set number of computers, therefore this comparison is not possible. I asked him to consider stealing a bike, which he, of course, thought was wrong, but then he pointed out that you could build a bike out of spare parts that functions the same as a commercially produced bicycle and possibly better without the threat of a lawsuit; there is no analog to the issue of software piracy here. I guess it’s possible to copy a program “in your own words,” so to speak, but legal issues would probably still surface. He also went further, stating that most people who download or copy software illegally would not have bought the software legitimately anyway and therefore, the companies aren’t actually out money; the only reason people use it is because of its zero price tag. I see the logic here, but I would not condone illegal downloading or copying for any reasons really. The best way to control the price, which is often stated as a driver for copying, is to not buy or use the software. As capitalists, we’re supposed to believe that the market should fix this problem using the proverbial Adam Smith ‘invisible hand,’ right? But instead, the presence of pirated software probably has the effect of driving up the price and punishing people for doing the right thing, which makes the piracy problem worse and justifies users in doing it. There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer here.
The disconnection between physical property and intellectual property is especially salient here and is an issue that I struggle personally with. I actually refuse to pay for downloads of software, games, music, or movies. I’m the old fashioned type that needs something physical instead of zeroes and ones if I’m going to part with the cash. I still buy records, cd’s, dvd’s, and boxed software. This, I think, is where the crux of the issue lies and I’ve chosen not to participate in the online music/software revolution I guess. Others have responded differently as a reaction to the intangibility of the product in question, believing, I think, that it is only a file, which is largely theoretical in a way – therefore, if it is practically nothing, then that is what it’s worth? The anonymity of online interactions has also aided largely in this issue, as well as issues of identity theft, online scams, and phishing; criminals no longer have to look their victims in the eye. How do we combat a mindset that both brings people closer together than ever before in many ways and at the same time objectifies and disconnects people from real world face-to-face interaction? We need clarification here. We need to learn to interact with people in the same room. We probably need a good talking to about intellectual property. We need to have the rules clearly laid out without lame, incomparable analogs. Many of us probably need to be forgiven.
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