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Introduction
Digital piracy of movies ranges from illegal copying and sharing of movies, to downloading of movies across peer-to-peer networks, and illegal streaming of movies from web sites ([63] MPAA, 2011; [81] Walls, 2008). It is a widespread problem that permeates almost all online media (e.g. music, software and movies) ([39] Karaganis, 2011; [40] Kariithi, 2011). It is a source of increasing concern for the digital media industry, as losses of up to $92 million in Australia ([1] AFACT, 2007); in the USA, estimates range from $58 billion to $250 billion ([69] Raustiala and Sprigman, 2012). The growth digital piracy is facilitated largely by the increase in high-speed broadband internet access, availability of anonymous peer-to-peer networks, and large storage media at low cost ([7] Al-Rafee and Rouibah, 2010; [22] Das, 2008); with top movies such as Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen topping ten million downloads around the world ([39] Karaganis, 2011).
This is of particular concern to intellectual property holders in the media industry, as legal threats and action against offending parties that facilitate online file sharing (e.g. Kazaa, Grokster and Megaupload) have been met with mixed results in curbing digital piracy ([15] Bhattacharjee et al. , 2006). This warrants an investigation into the antecedent factors that influence the digital piracy of movies, and thus identify possible avenues in which the digital piracy of movies could be handled.
Much of the literature considers the consumer perspectives of, and attitudes towards digital piracy; as well as consumer intentions towards acts of digital piracy in the context of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (e.g. [66] Peace et al. , 2003; [54] Limayem et al. , 2004; [6] Al-Rafee and Cronan, 2006; [67] Plowman and Goode, 2009; [85] Zhang et al. , 2009; [84] Yoon, 2011). However, most studies consider only certain aspects of the TPB and most have not applied it in its entirety in order to ascertain if it is truly applicable in the context of digital piracy. There is also a need to understand the consumer attitudes towards digital piracy in the younger generation, as they are most susceptible to digital piracy ([50] LaRose et al. , 2006; [27] Freestone and Mitchell, 2004).
Over the years, there has been much research...