Abstract:
The use of unlicensed software has recently attracted considerable attention. The
anti-piracy movements have shown a slight progress during the recent years yet have
failed largely to keep pace with ever increasing consumption of unlicensed software
around the globe. Software vendors worldwide lost a staggering $58.8 billion dollars
to piracy in 2010(Business Software Alliance, 2011). The problem is all the more
acute in the Asia Pacific region where Sri Lanka records a piracy rate of 86 %
(Business Software Alliance, 2011) which is the third highest piracy rate in the
region.
The ethical academia holds a host of researches investigating the problem of the use
of unlicensed software from different perspectives at national or international level
yet there have not been any such attempts in the Sri Lankan context. The study seeks
fill that gap in the academia and to identify the determinants of the use of unlicensed
software among Sri Lankan IT, Business and Legal professionals.
End user piracy being an act of individual illegally copying software would be better
explained through a behavioral model focusing the on individual decision-making
process and influencing factors thus the Theory of Planned Behavior model of Ajzen
was employed as the theoretical foundation for the study. Based on the Theory of
Planned Behavior of Ajzen with the additional factors of Perceived Financial
Control, Deterrent Effect of Legislation and Lack of Exposure to Open Source
Software, it was expected an improved framework can be obtained for predicting
consumer intention to use unlicensed software.
The results indicated that Subjective Norms, Perceived Financial Control and
Attitude are the most important variables affecting the intention to use unlicensed
software among Sri Lankan legal, IT and Business professionals. This investigation
can help software vendors and policy makers in understanding the key influences on consumer intention to use unlicensed software and in implementing the measures to
discourage the use of unlicensed software.
