A qualitative examination of movie piracy behaviors and their impact

The piracy of copyrighted movies in the digital disc format at any stage of the motion picture industry's value chain without permission of the copyright holders is an ongoing problem that is prevalent and adversely impacts industry revenues. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, we qualitatively examine the factors impacting domestic movie piracy behaviors in US respondents between 17 and 70 years of age. We discuss differences across groups and examine the underlying rationale for piracy behaviors. In order to move closer to mitigating some of the damages caused by movie piracy, it is recommended that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) should find ways to communicate with each group through effective marketing, education and enforcement of its piracy policies and penalties.