Examining the Factors Impact on Attitudes to Pirate Digital Productsamong University Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that affect attitudes towards pirate digital products among university students in Sri Lanka. Moral obligation, perceived benefits, fears of legal consequences, perceived likelihood of punishment were used as independent variables, and the attitude to pirate digital products was considered as the dependent variable. The sample was 150 respondents selected conveniently from all university students in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from the undergraduates. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement onFive Point Likert Scale as the scaling method. The data were analyzed and the mean score and standard deviation were used for all the variables for univariate analysis and correlation coefficient were used for bivariate analysis. The hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analysis. Through the analysis, researchers tried to identify whether there are significant relationships between above mentioned independent variables and the attitudes to pirate digital products among university students. The results of correlation analysis illustrated that there is a significant impact of perceived benefits, fears of legal consequences, perceived likelihood of punishment on attitudes towards digital piracy among university students. Further, identified that there is no significant impact of moral obligation on attitudes towards digital piracy among university students.