The Determinants of the use iof unlicensed software among Sri Lankan information technolgy, business and legalprofessionals

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.