SUDA: FIRST DRAFT

Shoot. Forgot to attach the first draft with the final. Here it is.

Music Piracy among University Students

Rationale:

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. This study also questions university students’ comprehension and understanding of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) and briefly touches upon the legal issues involving media piracy.

Do students understand the consequences of illegal downloading? If they do understand those consequences, would they continue to download digital media (specifically, music files) illegally?

Literature Review:

Previous studies in this field show that there are three main factors attributed to why media piracy happens, negative incentives, positive incentives, and consumer characteristics (Sinha & Mandel, 2008). Previous studies also show how stricter media industry (DRM music) control over result in a great number of people participating in media piracy while less interference with consumers’ media use (DRM-free music) resulted in less media piracy and more legally purchased music.

Music can be consumed in several ways, through media piracy, through legal purchases either online, by CD, or by LP, or via streaming feeds over the internet. College students are often accused of being some of the worst media piracy offenders due to their particular set of consumer characteristics (i.e. no money, higher level of education resulting in high level of optimum stimulus level (OSL), etc.).

Research Method:

Due to the legality of the material being studied, it is important to avoid pushing subjects’ into making incriminating statements. The privacy of the subjects’ is also a large concern. This study surveyed small groups of subjects using questionnaires. Though the study has a large number of subjects, these subjects were divided into small groups (between 4-12 people) and were given questionnaires. The questionnaires ask for background information such as race and ethnicity, if the subject is currently employed, family income level, parent or parents’ level of education. This information is double-checked with each subject individually. This ensures that the accuracy of the background information of all the subjects but allows the questionnaires to be completed anonymously. 

The questionnaires also ask for more study-relevant data such as the subject’s major or current area of study, if the subject has ever illegally downloaded music before, how often the subject illegally downloads music, the method by which the subject illegally downloads music, why the subject chooses to download legally or illegally, how old the subject was when he/she first became aware of media piracy, if the subject knows what the current laws are regarding media piracy, and if the subject understands the consequences of breaking DMCA.

Subject of the study: This study focuses on enrolled university students between the ages of 17-24. The study was 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, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, and Normandale Community College. This study took place at nine post-secondary institutes in an effort to create a diverse subject pool. Subjects were recruited using fliers, Facebook, word of mouth, on-campus promotion, and in-class promotion paired with bonus points.

The study returns to these subjects three times over the course of an academic year (approximately nine months). After the initial background information session, subjects are asked how often they downloaded music, where they downloaded music from, and whether or not they participated in media piracy. After the first session, subjects are also asked whether or not they hesitated before illegally downloading music. While researchers do not tell subjects of the legal consequences of media piracy until the end of the third session, every survey session asks the subject if he/she is aware of DMCA and asks if he/she understands the consequences of media piracy. One goal of this study is to see whether or not subjects hesitate or stop illegally downloading music, or discover if subjects look up information on DMCA independently.

References

Assane, D., Chiang, E. (2002). Copyright Piracy on the University Campus: Trends and Lessons  from  the Software and Music Industries. The International Journal on Media Management, 4(3), 145-149.

Fivelsdal, Harald (2005). Moving Toward a Balanced and Effective Response to Internet Music Piracy. JMM: The International Journal on Media Management, 7(3/4), 121-126.

Ki, E., Chang, B., Khang, H. (2006). Exploring Influential Factors on Music Piracy Across Countries. Journal of Communication, 56(2), 406-426.

LaRose, R., Lai, Y. J., Lange, R., Love, B., Wu, Y. (2005). Sharing or Piracy? An Exploration of Downloading Behavior. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), 1-21.

Lobato, R. (2011). Constructing the Pirate Audience: On Popular Copyright Critique, Free Culture and Cyber-Libertarianism. Media International Australia (8/1/07-current), 139, 113-123.

Sinha, R. K., Machado, F., Sellman, C. (2010). Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: Media Piracy and Pricing in a DRM-Free Environment. Journal of Marketing, 74(2), 40-54.

Sinha, R. K., Mandel, N. (2008). Preventing Digital Music Piracy: The Carrot or the Stick? Journal of Marketing, 72(1), 1-15.

U.S. Copyright Office, (1998, Dec). The Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998. Retrivied from http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf.