Self sanction and regulative sanction against copyright infringement: A comparison between U.S. and China college students

Abstract

Worldwide losses due to the copyright infringement of intellectual property such as PC software, music recordings, and motion pictures continue at epidemic proportions in emerging countries. This article develops a research model for analyzing individual ethical decision making that is influenced simultaneously by two chief forces: regulative sanction and self sanction. In particular, we report on the differences between 241 U.S. and 277 China college students' self-reported copyright infringement behaviors and attitudes. The analysis shows that the China subjects exhibit less concern about being prosecuted and penalized, but are equally responsive to social sanctions as U.S. subjects, strongly suggesting that stricter enforcement of copyright law in China will reduce copyright violations. However, the results show that self-regulatory efficacy is the primary determinant of copyright adherence for the U.S. subjects. For the China subjects, while self-regulatory efficacy is shown to significantly predict copyright infringement behaviors, it exists at lower levels and plays a lesser role in ethical decision making when compared to the U.S. subjects. Overall, the results indicate that normative and cultural-cognitive changes in China that go beyond regulative enforcement may be required if significant reductions in copyright infringement are to be expected.

Software Piracy Detection Model Using Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

“…Students in university play a critical role in piracy due to the advances in peer-to-peer file sharing programs which have made it easy for students to illegally download and share copyrighted content via campus network [2]. According to [1], piracy on campus has gained abundant attention due to recent high profile lawsuits against developers of file sharing software.…”

“…However, software piracy has no definite definition under the law. According to [2], software piracy is a form of copyright infringement which can happen in higher institutions where peers usually share information with each other. Thus, the act of software piracy can be dealt with under the provision of copyright infringement.…”

Knowledge of copyright issues and strategies used in solving copyright queries among academic librarians in Kenya

“…Social sanction comes in three forms: regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive (Gerlach, Kuo, & Lin, 2009). The regulative form is normally comprised of well established laws which are used to coerce society to conform.…”

“…Educating users to be able to self-regulate regarding how they perceive and conform to copyright compliance is critical to any efforts to curb infringement. Comparing students from China and those from the United States, Gerlach, Kuo, & Lin (2009) found that students from the United States were able to exhibit higher levels of self-regulation efficacy when compared to those from China. As a result of more strict enforcement of copyright laws in the U.S., American students exhibited a higher level of perceived risk as compared to those from China, where enforcement is not as strict.…”

“…Unfortunately, Tyler (1996Tyler ( -1997; Li & Nergadze (2009) found that punishment had no consequence of trying to deter people from copyright infringement. What has however been found to have a significant impact in deterence of copyright infringement is social influence and societal norms (Hsu & Shiue, 2008;Gerlach, Kuo, & Lin, 2009).…”