Why Do People Share Music Files in the P2P Environment: An Ethical Decision Perspective

Authors

Rong-An Shang, Department of Business Administration, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROCFollow
Yu-Chen Chen, Department of Business Administration, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROCFollow
Pin-Cheng Chen, Department of Business Administration, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROCFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Digitalized information and the Internet have brought great impacts on the music and movies industries. This study tested the ethical decision model of Hunt-Vitell to understand why and how people share unauthorized music files with others in the P2P network. Four scenarios of using P2P system and four norms related to them were proposed in the study. The results indicate that the deontological norm of anti-piracy, whether is theft of intellectual property or not, is not the main factors affecting P2P users’ ethical consideration regarding sharing music with others. The results also suggest the music companies should care more about how to realize the benefits of the digital and network technology to increase the consumers’ welfare instead of just declare the intellectual property they owned and resist the innovations caused by the new technologies.

Recommended Citation

Shang, Rong-An; Chen, Yu-Chen; and Chen, Pin-Cheng, "Why Do People Share Music Files in the P2P Environment: An Ethical Decision Perspective" (2005). ICEB 2005 Proceedings (Hong Kong, SAR China). 50.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/iceb2005/50