Factors affecting the unauthorized buyingand downloading of copyrighted music

Abstract

Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners; composer, recording artist or copyright-holding record company, did not give consent. In order to understand the situation in Thailand, the purpose of this paper is to determine factors affecting the unauthorized buying and downloading of copyrighted music. The research tools employed in this study are a questionnaire to enable statistical analysis from the desired sample of 410 subjects and focus group interview 30 subjects from every region in Thailand. The findings show that subjects are influenced in their decision to unauthorized buying and downloading of copyrighted music because of integrated marketing communication; advertising, sale promotion, public relations and direct marketing in the neutrul level. However, the Chi-Square Test results further show, with a level of significance at 0.01, that consumers’ decision with regard to unauthorized buying and downloading of copyrighted music depends on price, law, social acceptance and religion belief, which are confirmed by focus group interview. Hence, these are a key factor in influencing consumers to enroll for music piracy in Thailand, that the rights owners and the policy makers should consider for to prevent or stop this illegal behaviour.