Software Piracy and Computer-Using Professionals: A Survey

A survey of computer-using professionals was undertaken to gather data on their software copying habits. Various demographic data were collected, as were data regarding their software piracy behavior. Several interesting results were found. Consistent with previous research, over half of the respondents claimed to have pirated software. However, the percentages rose dramatically when those who had the opportunity to pirate and perceived a benefit to pirating were studied. Weak support for the use of punishment as a deterrent was found, although it was evident that the respondents' perceptions of the probability of punishment and punishment level varied tremendously. Those individuals that knew of a software piracy case in their organization were less likely to pirate themselves. Also, women were found to pirate software significantly less than men. These results show that the piracy problem is still a major issue in today's computerized world.