Final Project

Research Topic/Rationale:

This study investigates the use of media piracy among college students and student comprehension of potential legal repercussions for media piracy. This study specifically investigates the piracy of music files and does not focus on other types of pirated media. In this study, college students are asked about their downloading habits and are questioned about their knowledge or ignorance of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). The goal of the study is to investigate: how frequent students download music files, whether or not students download files illegally, what third party sites are used to obtain music files, students’ awareness and comprehension of the DMCA, and students’ opinions on current media piracy laws.

The goal of this study is to discover factors that contribute music piracy among university students and to discover if university students understand the legal consequences of music piracy. This study examines several factors that have been studied in previous communications research: Willingness to Pay (WTP), income level, gender, race/ethnicity, and age.  These will be used to determine whether or not there are any significant factors that contribute to media piracy among college students (e.g. if a student comes from a lower socioeconomic background the s/he is more likely to pirate music due to a lack of financial resources). This study includes questions and an explanation of the DMCA in order to educate students on the current piracy laws and to determine if awareness of the law has any impact on behavior.

Research Questions:

– Do university students understand the consequences of illegal downloading?

– If those consequences are understood, why continue to download digital media (specifically, music files) illegally?

– Are the legal consequences for media piracy (specifically, the pirating of music files) strong enough?

Hypotheses:

H1: If a student is from a lower socioeconomic background then s/he will be more likely to download music illegally than a student from a middle or upper-middle class background.

H2: If a student is aware of and has some basic knowledge (e.g. recognizes and understands why downloading media files are illegal) of the DMCA then the student will be just as likely to download illegally as their unaware classmates.

Literature Review:

-         Previous research defines piracy as “the act of acquiring copyrighted products without license” (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 145).

-         Enforcement of the DMCA is random and arbitrary, thus the reward is greater than the risk which leads to difficulties reducing piracy on college campuses; students feel as if they won’t be caught (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 146).

-         Uses and gratifications theory explained by the notion of “‘sharing;’” a diversity of goods makes the customer happy thus people seek out sites which allow them to “‘share’” (exchange goods in a barter without paying the producer of the work) (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 146).

-         Napster and other third party downloading sites do not actually host music on their servers (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 147).

-         Napster and other third party downloading sites allow users with the appropriate software to take media files from other computers with similar software (peer-to-peer sharing) (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 147).

-         Piracy occurs when the incentives to not pirate (e.g. jail time, etc.) are less than the incentives to pirate (e.g. free music!) (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 148).

-         Pirating likely occurs due to customer’s lack of willingness to pay, the interest in singles over albums, and a lack of serious legal repercussions (Chiang & Assane, 2002, p. 148).

-         In 2009, Apple iTunes began to release digital rights management free (DRM-free) music which removed many legal stipulations that had prevented a person from ‘owning’ the music files that they had paid for (Sinha, Machado & Sellman, 2010, p. 40).

-         DRM-free music does not permit a user to upload the music file onto a sharing site or to copy the files indiscriminately (Sinha, Machado & Sellman, 2010, p. 41).

-         DRM-free music allows a user to make private copies and authorizes the user to share music for personal, non-commercial uses (e.g. with friends).

-         DRM-free music decreased media pirating and increased the number of customers who bought their music legally (Sinha, Machado & Sellman, 2010, p. 40).

-         Sinha, Machado & Sellman’s 2010 study explains why consumers prefer DRM-free music, examines piracy in terms of willingness to pay (WTP), and looks at why DRM and music file prices affect piracy levels and producer profits.

-         DRM-free music may decrease a person’s WTP since DRM-free music may be transferred from friend to friend (in very specific circumstances) without legal repercussions (Sinha, Machado & Sellman, 2010, p. 46).

-         The tendency to pirate depends on three things: positive incentives, negative incentives, and the consumer’s characteristics (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 1)

-         Positive incentives (aesthetically-pleasing, intuitive website design) can lead consumers to use legal file-sharing sites like iTunes instead of pirating (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p.1).

-         Digital music is an “information good that is expensive to produce and cheap to reproduce” (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 1).

-         Negative incentives can be characterized by uncertainty and adverse consequences (how likely is the person to be caught and how bad will the repercussions be?) (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 2).

-         As a customer’s piracy increases the customer’s WTP decreases (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 2).

-         Customers with high optimum stimulation levels (OSL) are likely to seek out new music and are therefore more likely to pirate simply due to the sheer frequency of their downloads (i.e. it would cost them too much money were they to pay for the music files) (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 3).

-         Customers with high OSL tend to be younger and therefore do not have as the same financial resources as older customers (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 12).

-         Consumers are not more likely to increase their WTP due to shame or the social stigma of pirating (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 12).

-         College-aged consumers do not find pirating to be a violation of social norms, it is actually the norm, and therefore there is not social stigma or shame attached to pirating (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 13).

-         Only 5% of college-aged consumers believe that downloading music for free off the Internet is wrong or unethical (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 13).

Scope:

This study focuses on enrolled university students between the ages of 17-24. The study will be conducted at nine different university campuses in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota: Hamline University, Macalester College, Augsburg College, St. Thomas University, St. Catherine College, the University of Minnesota, Concordia College, Metro State University. The subjects will be recruited using fliers, Facebook, word of mouth, on-campus promotion, and in-class promotion paired with bonus points. The goal will be to recruit approximately 100-150 students per campus with a total target goal of 1,200 students. The goal is to create a broad subject pool for analysis (race/ethnicity, income levels, gender, etc.).

Methodologies:

The study will split participants into groups of four to 12 students based on their campus (smaller groups are preferable). The participants will be asked to fill out three different surveys over the course of 9 months (approximately the length of the academic year). These surveys will evaluate any changes in the participants’ downloading behavior, knowledge of the DMCA, and attitudes towards music piracy and piracy laws. The researcher(s) will rotate between campuses every day or every other day to conduct the research.

All three surveys will be filled out by the participants individually during the small group sessions. During these sessions, the researcher(s) will be on hand to answer questions and to clearly explain procedures and details to the students.

The first survey will have two parts, basic questions and questions about downloading habits. The basic, personal questions will ask about: age, gender, race and ethnicity, family socioeconomic status, student employment status, college, year in college, majors, GPA, and estimated yearly disposable income. These questions are important because they establish a background and context for each participant. These questions also contribute to the investigation of factors that lead to illegal downloading. This set of questions also asks participants the age when s/he became aware of media piracy and the age when s/he began to pirate. After the first session, subjects are also asked whether or not they hesitated before illegally downloading music.

The questions about downloading habits will be asked in all three illegal surveys. These establish the participant’s initial downloading patterns, their habits from the middle of the study, and their habits toward of the study. These questions will determine changes in participant attitude and behavior. Participants will be asked how often music is downloaded, which download sites are used, what sort of material is downloaded, the amount of material downloaded, and the amount paid for material downloaded. The goal is to determine the ratio of illegal downloads (sites like Pirate Bay) to legal downloads (sites like iTunes).  There will also be questions that ask for the rationale behind participants’ behavior (participants may check all that apply, with a write-in option available): availability of music files, cost of music and participant’s willingness to pay (WTP), disregard for laws, and/or ignorance of laws.

While researcher(s) do not explain the legal consequences of media piracy to participants until the end of the third session, every survey session asks the subject if s/he is aware of DMCA and asks if s/he understands the consequences of media piracy. By not telling the participants until after the second session, the researcher(s) will be better able to track if there are any changes to participants’ downloading behavior.

Due to the legality of the material being studied, it is important to avoid pushing participants into making incriminating statements. The privacy of the participants is also a large concern. This will be dealt with by requiring confidentiality forms from all participants and explaining in the consequences of the DMCA in great depth during the second survey session. Survey forms will use randomly assigned number/letter codes to identify the participant. By conducting surveys in small groups it will allow for some anonymity but will also be easier to ensure participant returns and competition of the study by giving participants people to empathize with.

Expected Outcomes:

I think that this study will show that more than 50% of college students pirate music (Assane & Chiang, 2002), (Sinha & Mandel, 2008, p. 13). There will be a number of factors that contribute to that but I believe the most significant factor will be financial motive. College is expensive and students typically only work part-time or don’t work at all. This means students are usually in debt and often have very little income. This means that students will more inclined to pirate music rather than using sites like iTunes; students are among the population who are unwilling to pay for music that can be obtain by extralegal means (Sinha & Mandel, 2008). Students are also among the younger demographic in this country and are generally more familiar with technology; they know which websites to pirate from and how to pirate safely.

I also think that rates of piracy will remain throughout the study, despite an explanation of the DMCA and legal consequences. I believe that most participants’ behavior will not be impacted at all by this knowledge. I think a small percentage of participants will cease pirating as a result of this knowledge but a comparable number of participants will begin pirating as a result of this knowledge. The DMCA has been rendered almost obsolete by new court cases (RIAA v. Verizon, 2003). While downloading is illegal and streaming music is illegal under the DMCA, this act did not adapt which aids the interests of media pirates.

Limitations:

This is a largely, multi-layered and slightly unwieldy study. It involves a large number of participants and would require a great deal of effort and time. It is also a very long and extensive study. I plan for some participants to drop out (students are busy and don’t always have time to commit despite the initial burst of enthusiasm) which is why the sample numbers are so large.

The DMCA is also hopelessly outdated. The 2003 RIAA v. Verizon changed how the RIAA (Recoding Industry Association of America) could target individual pirates. That court case made prosecuting individual pirates almost pointless due to the length of time necessary to even obtain the name linked to an ISP address. The DMCA did not adapt and so illegal downloading became safer for the pirates.

Theories:

Uses and Gratifications Theory – Users (pirates) seek out third party sharing sites and peer-to-peer software specifically to upload, download, and share music files. Users are active new media participants and choose these sites in order to fulfill their desire for “free” music.