What drives illegal download of movies?

Abstract

This study investigates how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) influences the damage of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the movie industry. Utilizing the survey questionnaire with information on the extensive use of ICT devices such as tablet PC, and smart phones, we focus on the illegal downloading behavior of respondents with various demographic characteristics. Econometrically, due to a large number of people not engaging in illegal downloading activities, we adopt a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial model. We find that people with tablet PC are more likely to illegally download the movies from P2P sites. In particular, when we categorize the ICT devices based on whether it is portable and downloadable, we detect that people holding the device equipped with both functions are most likely to illegally download the movies. Concerning the relationship between illegal activities and demographic characteristics, our finding is consistent with previous studies except schooling and smart device in the literature.