The Use of Pirated Software among Information Professionals: Measuring the Difference

Abstract

Not millions but billions of dollars lost by software house companies due to software piracy issue. The numbers keep increasing year-by-year. Though there are continuous research work being done and reported across the world, nothing has been done to curb the phenomena and what should be done to make piracy to stop? Hence, this study was conducted to investigate whether there were any significant differences on this issue among information professionals in Malaysia. Factors measuring the study were Impression Management (IM), Personal Attributes (PA), Degree of Hardcore Pirate (DHP), Pirating Behavior (PB), Reciprocal Fairness (RF), Procedural Fairness (PF), Perceptions (P), Subjective Norms (SN), Intention (I) and Ethical Standards (ES). The findings of this research showed that some of the factors has significant difference and some are not. To practitioners and researcher, the findings should be able assist and guide which area and factors that need and required extra attention in order to reduce piracy issue.