Attitudes towards software piracy in South Africa: Knowledge of Intellectual Property Laws as a moderator

The aims of the study were to describe the relationship between all three of Kohlberg's levels of moral development and attitudes towards software piracy as well as to determine if an individual's Knowledge of Intellectual Property Laws moderated this relationship. The research exploring moral development and attitudes towards software piracy is limited in that the results are inconclusive and often do not assess higher levels of moral development. In this study, we explore some of the early antecedent relationships in the theory of reasoned action. An exploratory, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was used and a questionnaire containing three scales (attitudes towards software piracy, levels of moral development and Knowledge of Intellectual Property Laws) were obtained from a sample of 402 respondents from three medium-sized South African organisations and from an online survey on a prominent South African online information technology magazine. The results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between the respondents’ attitudes to software piracy and levels of moral development. Additionally, there are significant relationships between attitudes towards software piracy and each of the levels of moral development. Level 2 moral development predicted the most amount of variance in attitudes towards software piracy. The moderated multiple linear regression revealed that the Knowledge of Intellectual Property Laws did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between attitudes towards software piracy and moral development. These findings provide a more in-depth analysis of the relationship between attitudes and levels of moral development with respect to software piracy.     

Continuance intention of blog users: the impact of perceived enjoyment,habit, user involvement and blogging time

The purpose of this study is to understand factors that affect continuance intention of a popular hedonic information system, blogs. The expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) is adapted with perceived enjoyment, habit and user involvement. Data was collected via an online survey. A total of 430 valid responses were collected. The research model was assessed by structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that continuance intention of blog use was predicted collectively by user involvement, satisfaction and perceived enjoyment. Habit, however, exhibited no strong relationship with satisfaction and use intention. Users' satisfaction with blog use was predicted primarily by perceived enjoyment, followed by users' confirmation of expectation and user involvement. Perceived enjoyment was predicted by users' involvement and users' confirmation of expectation. Blogging time significantly moderates the effect of habit on perceived enjoyment, but not on satisfaction and continuance intention. The integrated model explains 65% of the satisfaction and 57% of continuance intention. The results suggest that integrating perceived enjoyment and user involvement into the ECT provides better insights into continuous use in the blog context.     

Adolescent self-control and music and movie piracy

Recent studies have applied Grottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime to investigate whether college students’ inclinations toward internet software piracy is related to low self-control and opportunity (i.e., computer ownership). Given the widespread use of the internet to illegally obtain copies of music and movies, it is important to understand the factors in this form of piracy as well. This study applied the self-control perspective to examine the attitudes of high school students toward the internet piracy of music and movies. Attitudes toward the internet piracy of music and movies were related to self-control, biological sex, internet experience, affiliation with deviant peers, and grade level in this study of high school students. This information is important because studies of internet piracy had not yet confirmed the presence and predictability of internet piracy in high school students. This study also suggests that piracy prevention efforts may be most appropriately focused on high school age individuals and directed toward increasing self-control.     

Understanding undergraduates’ problems from determinants of Facebook continuance intention

As social networks’ popularity has increased, so have the attendant problems. The purpose of this study is to identify the important problems by exploring the determinants of Facebook continuance intention from a negative perspective. A questionnaire survey and interview method is used to provide a deep understanding of both the problems and their causes. The research hypotheses are empirically evaluated using the responses from a field survey of 555 undergraduates. The results indicate that previous usage behaviour is the most important determinate of continuance intention. There is a positive causal relationship between perceived privacy self-protection and usage behaviour. In addition to a common privacy issue, this study discovers some problems such as underestimating the potential risks, having misconceptions and lacking legal and information security knowledge. Moreover, this study presents a diagnostic system that administrators can use to detect students’ key problems and understand the reasons behind students’ behaviour.     

计算机防盗版技术和防伪密钥初探

本文借助文件及文件夹相关属性的一些特性,对计算机防盗版技术和防伪密钥的实现技术进行了初步探索,并给出了vbasic6.0编程实现的解决方案。     

What do computer science students think about software piracy?

Today, software piracy is an issue of global importance. Computer science students are the future information and communication technologies professionals and it is important to study the way they approach this issue. In this article, we attempt to study attitudes, behaviours and the corresponding reasoning of computer science students in Greece regarding software piracy. The statements taken in 56 semi-structured interviews with students indicate that computer science students in Greece make intensive use of pirated software, mention as main reason for their practice the cost of genuine software, and blame the academic environment, coincidental stereotypes and their student status for this behaviour. They acknowledge the immoral character of their actions, as well as the fact that others are affected by software piracy, but they pay little attention to this action and they practically don't care. While keeping distance from software development companies, when specifically asked, they easily adopt the role of a software developer and attempt to substantiate their current and eventually future attitude out of hand. They consider software copyright laws to be inapplicable and unrealistic and fail to argue against intellectual property rights for mere digital products, such as software.     

Impact of intangibility on perceived risk associated with online games

Online computer gaming is growing at a rapid pace. However, this phenomenon is stigmatised by many negative connotations. This study investigated the influence of intangibility on perceived risks (social, time, financial, physical, performance and psychology) among online gamers. The self-completed market survey questionnaire employs the Intangibility and Perceived Risk scales. Data were gathered in Taipei city, the biggest metropolitan areain Taiwan. Both public (1018) and online (400) voluntary interviews were conducted. The collected data were analysed with a structural equation model. There is a significant positive relationship between intangibility and alldimensions of perceived risk. The findings have managerial implications and future research is suggested.     

An exploratory study on mobile banking adoption in Indian metropolitan and urban areas: a scenario-based experiment

Security concerns have thwarted the widespread adoption of mobile banking in India. To respond to the concerns of Indian banks and their customers, we present in this paper our exploratory attempts to understand how the levels of security affect perceived risk and control and ultimately, adoption of mobile banking by Indian customers. This study also examines the moderating influence of the type of city on the relationship between security levels and risk/control perceptions associated with mobile banking. Using a scenario-based experiment, we classified security-enhancing approaches into three categories and examined their effectiveness in decreasing Indian customers’ perceived risk, increasing their perceived control, and then in turn, facilitating mobile banking adoption. Our findings reveal the important role of perceived risk and control in influencing customers’ intention to adopt mobile banking. Moreover, perceived risk and control significantly influenced mobile banking adoption by customers in urban areas, but only perceived control significantly influenced mobile banking adoption by metropolitan customers. Additional analyses show that customers’ risk and control perceptions differ according to the level of security; however, these perceptions do not have a significant influence on risk and control.     

Social Media as a Tool to Help Select Tourism Destinations: The Case of Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This study modeled use of social media as a tool to select tourism destinations. The findings revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) directly influenced the attitude and has an indirect effect on intention with the presence of attitude. The development of tourism marketing and communication strategies should focus on the online context as the factors which are capable of influencing tourists’ behavior in a more efficient way.     

Cryptography Regulations for E-commerce and Digital Rights Management.

Strong encryption is an urgent need for e-commerce development, as it allows the privacy and secure transactions of the financial data. International regulations must allow the spreading of e-commerce and the associated encryption products, in order to establish a secure e-commerce environment that customers can trust and allowing an international deployment of e-commerce solutions without restrictions.     

Digital piracy intention: a comparison of theoretical models

Digital piracy intention research has yielded different sets of piracy intention determinants based on various theoretical models. In this study, we reviewed the digital piracy literature and empirically compared two theoretical models, which are the models most often used: the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the Hunt–Vitell ethical decision model. Data were obtained from university students in South Korea, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to examine and compare the two competing theoretical models in terms of explanatory power, overall model fit and paths' significance. The findings of this study revealed that the TPB is a more appropriate model for predicting digital piracy than the Hunt–Vitell ethical decision model.     

针对互联网盗版电子信息产品现状的一个解决方案

当前互联网电子信息产品盗版现象严重,为了解决这一问题,我们开发了新型数字信息安全传播平台。该平台基于海南大学信息学院顾建教授两项专利技术,即《任意周期可控复杂度满足公设的随机序列方法和系统》和《同一信道独立授权的数字信息安全传输方法和系统》。通过该平台,对电子信息产品版权起到很好的保护作用。