Here is something that escapes my mind: there are many studies concerning how music piracy impacts on the record sales, music industry and economy, but only a few researches about why people engage in the piracy behavior. Why? For example every year International Federation of the Phonographic Industry releases a commercial piracy report that shows piracy statistics, distinguishes problem countries with high level of piracy and explains how these figures affect negatively on the music industry, but there is only little discussion about the reasons that lead to the current state of piracy. It is crucial to study the motives of people when they engage in the piracy behavior. This way we might understand the issue better and influence it much more effectively.

In general music piracy’s roots are strong in the past when music industry was fighting against cassette pirates and bootleggers. The problem was that it was too easy and tempting to copy a cassette tape, because there was practically nobody to monitor this activity. However, the quality of the recording always suffered when duplicated and that led many people to rather buy the original recording than to get a lower quality copy from a friend. Today that is no longer a problem for the music pirates because of compact disc recorders and digital audio files. It is common knowledge that piracy is illegal and unethical, but when there is no one to stop you, why not to do it. Legislation is probably the most effective tool against piracy, but the enforcement of the legislation varies greatly from country to country. For example, in Finland the chances of being prosecuted of downloading music illegally are almost the same as winning in the lottery.

It is hard for people to consider piracy as a real threat, because you can’t see the Internet pirates actually stealing anything tangible. Downloading an album is different from shoplifting, because online digital copies are “non-rivalrous” goods. Even after someone downloads an illegal copy of an album, a copy remains on the original sharer’s computer, and it also remains on the self of the record store. For example, downloading illegally a movie is considered rather as a prank than a crime. A study called Fake Nation, conducted by Dr. Jo Bryce of the University of Central Lancashire and Dr. Jason Rutter of the University of Manchester, was commissioned to find out if the anti-piracy message was having an impact on people’s attitudes. Dr. Jo Bryce states: “The purchase of counterfeit goods or illegal downloading are seen as normal leisure practices.” People don’t see piracy as a theft, yet. “They just see it as inevitable, particularly as new technologies become available.” The biggest problem, according to Bryce, is that although consumers are aware of the scale of the problem and cost they don’t take industry concerns or government messages into too much consideration.

Internet music piracy is getting more and more popular due to variety of factors. The new generation music listeners are all in for Internet and the concept of CD is losing interest. Peer-to-peer networks and BitTorrent websites only encourage people to engage in the piracy behavior and usually the pirates do the downloading from the safe surroundings of their own home, which alone is a major factor that definitely contributes positively to piracy. These p2p networks and BitTorrent websites can also be considered as Internet stores that are giving stuff for free and when you get it for free there is no reason to go and buy the stuff from stores. It does not matter if you are rich or poor, the fact that it is free appeals to almost anyone. Sharing music has always been part of social bonding, but now with the Internet the measures are surreal. People are sharing music with everyone, who has access to Internet, instead of just friends and family. Overall there are much more of those factors that affect positively to the piracy behavior than those factors that affect negatively.