Online pirated movie and music files

Copyright has become an increasingly important topic in the world of Information Technology because it protects the intellectual property of the creators. Piracy has become more threatening with the advance of technology and Internet. Copyright is legal protection that applies to original work. Our purpose is to determine if Zayed University students do download movie and music files and how to over come this issue.

Literature Review

Online piracy is a worldwide phenomenon. One study reported that there are no nations with less than a 20% piracy rate. It is estimated that in 2001 the movie and music industries lost US$10.97 billion globally as a result of piracy (Haberman L., 2003). Due to distribution through peer-to-peer networks pirated movies appear even before their official release. Early release on the Internet results in some potential viewers not going to see movies in the movie theatre. This loss of revenue is related to piracy. The music industry has raised similar concerns. It is estimated that online music piracy resulted in annual sales losses of US$3.1 billion by 2005 due to the use of online sites like Kaza and Napster. Steps by the music industry to halt Internet piracy may be futile (Clark, D. 2000). However, locally, UAE had joined the GATT and implemented from few years Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws (Hutzley, J., 1998). So, the UAE have a problem with pirated movie and music files.

Method

We surveyed students at Zayed University and asked them about downloading copyrighted movies and music. The purpose of the survey was to investigate students' downloading experiences and to better understand their ethics. We sampled two groups: Readiness and CIT (College of Information Technology) students. We chose them because each group represents different disciplines. In Table 1 we present the number of students enrolled in Readiness and the CIT, along with survey participation information.



The two-page survey was designed to be easily completed by the research participants and included open-ended, multiple choice and Likert scale ranking questions. The survey was revised after a pilot study designed to address issues of reliability and clarity. Finally, we analyzed the data using Microsoft Excel.

Results

While our survey was wide ranging, here we will focus only on: 1) downloading behaviors, 2) awareness of piracy law, and 3) continuance of downloading. We found that 21% of the students in both samples downloaded illegally on a daily basis, 54% downloaded weekly, and 25% downloaded monthly. Their awareness of piracy law was that 42% of CIT students knew about it however, 93% of Readiness students did not know that downloading pirated movies and music was illegal. The Readiness students indicated that 30% will try to avoid it in the future compared to 26% of CIT students. Unfortunately more than 50% of the students indicated that they will continue illegal downloading of movie and music files.

Discussion

Our research leads us to think about why students illegally download movies and music. A key reason why students download movie and music files is that they have no access to online payment methods, such as credit cards. They also avoid online payments for fear of identity theft. Online piracy is also not prominent in the media that Zayed University students are exposed to. Students need to be informed at an early age about illegally downloading any file. Multiple sources should be used to spread the message that downloading without paying for movies and music is theft. In our survey, after the students understood what piracy was, we asked if they would still continue downloading. Most said they would continue to download illegally. Due to their free time and thirst for entertainment this behavior is likely to continue. However, they are not fully aware of piracy and its consequences. Even though downloading is widespread, it does not mean that illegally downloading movies and music is acceptable. Eventually, we all pay the price for illegal downloading through higher costs for legal movies and music.

Conclusion

Awareness helps users to understand intellectual property rights and may reduce illegal downloading behaviors. We found that Zayed University students from both colleges do download movie and music files when they are not suppose to. We conclude that technology has made it easier to pirate files, faster and perhaps with impunity. However, to make people aware about illegal downloading, we need a broad and comprehensive strategy at government and university levels to educate people about this issue.