Piracy Rates Research Articles

Maritime piracy and armed robbery analysis in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore through the utilization of natural language processing

ABSTRACT Piracy and armed robbery have become serious problems in maritime economic activities, particularly in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. These crimes occur due to various influential factors, necessitating analysis through incident reports. This study aims to identify the factors influencing piracy and armed robbery in these areas using natural language processing (NLP) technologies. Data were obtained from reports compiled by relevant organizations such as the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Annual Reports on Piracy and Armed Robbery from the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). These data were reconstructed through NLP and further analyzed using the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (BERT) model derivative, BERTopic. Several topics were obtained from the analysis, suggesting key factors influencing the outcome of piracy and armed robbery incidents. These topics will serve as the basis for suggestions and solution provisions that can be effectively applied and utilized to further decrease the frequency and success rate of piracy and armed robbery in the future. The findings provide crucial insights for developing strategies to mitigate the impact of these criminal activities on maritime economic activities.

Whether to Add a Digital Product into Subscription Service?

Digital products companies are increasingly adopting subscription pricing, but consumers who pay the subscription service may not be able to access all digital products sold on the sales platform. This paper explores the question of why some digital products are not in the subscription service of the sales platform. To address this problem, we develop an analytical model to examine two strategies of the firm. One is that the firm does not add the new product into the subscription service, the other is that the firm adds the new product into the subscription service. By comparing the profits under two sets, we find the condition under which the firm should add the new digital product into the subscription service. The results show that if the percentage of existing subscribers is below a certain threshold, and the subscription price is over a certain threshold, it is better for the firm to add the new product into the subscription service. We also analyze how the main variables affect the firm’s profit and the piracy rate. Our research provides useful insights for firms in choosing pricing schemes for the newly released product and offers advice for policymakers on controlling the piracy rate of digital products industry.

Factors Affecting Attitude towards Online Music Piracy and Willingness to Try Subscription-Based Music Services (SBMS)?

Currently, subscription-based music services (SBMS) are one of the legal channels for listening to music and a viable alternative to reduce digital music piracy. SBMS is one of the complementary channels for digital music piracy because it allows users to sample music (legally) and then download it illegally. This research aimed to analyze individual attitudes and intentions towards digital music piracy and willingness to try SBMS by considering the religiousness variable. This study used the non-probability sampling technique, analyzed 200 questionnaires, and processed them using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of this study stated that the attitude towards digital piracy was positively influenced by economic benefit, hedonic benefit, and extrinsic religiousness and negatively influenced by moral judgment, while willingness to try SBMS was positively influenced by involvement. This paper provides more empirical evidence regarding the impact of religiousness on attitudes toward digital piracy and willingness to try SBMS. This research has made a significant contribution and shows the anomaly that although Indonesia is a religious country, it has a high rate of digital piracy. This study suggests the need for commitment and cooperation between governments, streaming music service providers, and musicians to educate Indonesians about the consequences and implications of digital music piracy.

Climate Change, Fish Production, and Maritime Piracy

Abstract Contemporary social science has produced little research on connections between climate change and crime. Nonetheless, much prior research suggests that economic insecurity may affect individual calculations of the cost and benefit of engaging in criminal behavior, and climate change is likely to have important economic consequences for professions like fishing that depend directly on the environment. In this paper, we test the possibility that climate change affects participation in maritime piracy, depending on the specific ways that it impacts regional fish production. Our analysis is based on piracy in East Africa and the South China Sea. These two regions are strategic in that both areas have experienced a large amount of piracy; however, rising sea temperatures have been associated with declines in fish production in East Africa but increases in the South China Sea. We treat sea surface temperature as an instrument for fish output and find that in East Africa higher sea surface temperature is associated with declining fish production, which in turn increases the risk of piracy, whereas in the South China Sea higher sea surface temperature is associated with increasing fish production, which in turn decreases the risk of piracy. Our results also show that decreases in fish production bring about a larger number of successful piracy attacks in East Africa and that increases in fish production are associated with fewer successful attacks in the South China Sea. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of the findings and point out that as climate change continues, its impact on specific crimes will likely be complex, with increases and decreases depending on context. Significance Statement There is little evidence on the effect of climate change on criminal behavior. This study seeks to quantify the impact of a specific type of climate change—rising sea temperature—on maritime piracy, a type of crime that is linked exclusively to the ocean. The risk of piracy attacks and the probability of successful attacks are higher with declines in fish production in East Africa and lower with increases in fish production in the South China Sea. These results suggest that climate change does affect maritime piracy rates and that its effect depends on the specific situational context and the rational choices that changing sea temperatures generate.

Presence of piracy and legal protection: Decisions in the digital goods market under different contracts

Digital piracy remains a challenge for digital content developers and platforms. This study explores the impacts of digital piracy on content developers, platforms, and consumers when platforms make efforts to reduce piracy. The reselling and agency selling contracts between content developers and platforms are investigated. According to the equilibria, we show that there are three different cases: no piracy, the threat of piracy, and the presence of piracy. Under different business contracts, the equilibria and impacts of piracy on the supply chain differ considerably. Surprisingly, we find that although the presence of piracy always negatively affects chain members’ profits under the agency selling contract, it can positively affect such profits in certain situations under the reselling contract. In addition, we show isolated Pareto improvement regions under the reselling and agency selling contracts. We also find that if there is a large gap between the high and low protection levels, then the platform prefers the high level over the low level, regardless of the business contract. Furthermore, compared with the adoption of the reselling contract, we observe that in most cases, the adoption of the agency selling contract results in a lower piracy rate and a higher consumer surplus.

Determining the optimal release time of movies: A study of movie and market characteristics

The over-the-top (OTT) industry has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years with a sharp increase in the number of subscribers, leading to increased competition among OTT platforms to acquire movie rights. Consequently, the gap between the theatrical and OTT releases has been diminishing over the last few years. An early release of a movie on an OTT platform fetches a higher distribution fee for a movie distributor (MD), however, it reduces the MD’s revenue from the theatrical release. Therefore, it becomes critical for the MD to determine the optimal release time and distribution fee combination. In this paper, we analytically solve the MD’s decision problem and provide a detailed analysis of how the optimal release time varies with changes in platform characteristics such as the proportion of ad revenue and the platform’s risk profile, movie characteristics such as success factor and suitability for OTT, and market characteristics such as broadband penetration, piracy rate and customers’ preferences for viewing channels. We compare our results with the actual release times of 243 movies released during 2015–2022. We find that the optimal release time increases with ad revenue proportion, broadband penetration, and piracy rate, whereas the optimal fee reduces non-linearly with release time and depends on OTT’s risk profile. Our findings also indicate that the optimal release time reduces for movies that do not provide any additional utility for theater goers, and as customers’ preference towards OTT increases. Our work provides much-needed guidelines for professionals dealing with movie releases on OTTs.

Consumers’ responses to opposing copyright enforcement regimes: When cognitive appraisal leads to compliance vs reactance

Academic studies reveal that copyright enforcement regimes are not reaching their full potential in lowering digital piracy rates. Still, very few demand-side studies tap into the reasons why this occurs. We conducted a scenario-based experiment on a sample of 401 consumers engaged in content streaming. We draw on cognitive appraisal theory to reveal that digital piracy beliefs shape consumers' emotional reactions (positive emotions vs. indignation) differently in opposing copyright enforcement regimes. Through reactance theory, we unfold consumers' coping mechanisms through which they comply with or show reactance to the designated regime (measured by intention to use illegal or legal streaming services). Our findings show that positive digital piracy beliefs drive positive emotions in loose and indignation in tight copyright enforcement regime. In terms of coping, we reveal that compliance to the regime is driven by positive while negative emotions drive reactance. Our study provides valuable insights by revealing antecedents that have not been previously addressed in digital piracy literature. Findings provide value to policymakers and managerial practice to better understand digital piracy's realities and redesign their policies and strategies accordingly.

Software protection and software piracy

AbstractThis paper explores the dynamic long‐term relationship between software protection and software piracy rates across 108 countries over the period of 20 years (1994–2015), with the help of the ARDL model. The analysis employs a new way of utilising the membership duration of Trade related Intellectual Property Rights agreement and World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty agreements of different countries in a panel framework, apart from constructing an index of copyright software protection by focusing on enforcement provisions. The paper overcomes various shortcomings of earlier literatures by thoughtful inclusion of independent variables and methodological techniques. Results show that both copyright software protection and income share a negative long‐term relationship with software piracy. Even the enforcement provisions are important in mitigating software piracy. In addition, the model finds a negative relationship between demand for intellectual property protection and software piracy rates.

The impact of trust on intellectual property right protection: a cross-national study

PurposeThis study aims to empirically investigate how difference in social trust explains the heterogeneity of intellectual property right (IPR) protection (proxied by software piracy rate) across countries. Specifically, the authors also examine whether this effect is complementary or substitute to legal and economic factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use both ordinary least square and two-stage least square regressions to investigate this effect.FindingsThe authors find that there is also a complementary effect between trust and rule of law in reducing the violation of IPRs.Originality/valueAlthough the literature by now has documented the solid relationship between trust and the quality of formal institutions, only few studies have explored more specific measures of institutional consequences. Thus, this study is the first study investigating the role of trust, a valuable social capital dimension, on IPR protection.

Digital Piracy among Young Adults: The Role of Values and Time Perspectives

The aim of the research is to measure the extent of piracy among young adults and to relate this phenomenon to variables, such as values and time orientation. The research fits into the risk paradigm of cyber research. The research was carried out in Northern Cyprus, a country with a persistently high rate of digital piracy. The research involved 318 young adults (Mean Age: 20.9, SD: 2.47). The research process was conducted through the triangulation of three questionnaires: Piracy Risk Scale, Time Perspective Inventory, and the Values Scale. Based on the data collected, it was noted that piracy is not a rare phenomenon among young people (similar to other e-risks), and it is most common for files related to entertainment to be systematically downloaded. Digital piracy is linked to the level of digital competence, as well as hedonistic and fatalistic attitudes to time and values such as materialism and sense of honour. Despite technological developments maximising the legal circulation of cultural and other digital content, piracy has still not been completely eliminated.

Roll Motion Analysis on Unmanned Surface Vehicle with Remote Controlled Weapon Station Models to Combat Piracy in Surabaya West Access Channel

The dense shipping activity in the Surabaya West Access Channel (SWAC) is accompanied by a high rate of piracy which had 13 cases during 2013–2018. An Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) with Remote Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS) was created to overcome this piracy, increase work effectiveness, and reduce potential casualties. This study aims to create a design of USV equipped with RCWS complies with the requirements then analyzes the stability and seakeeping (roll motion) because it is one of the most determining factors of the stability and safety of the ship. The research method in this study is a simulation process based on system engineering theory starting from the formulation of requirements, design making, and then simulation. Five design models are created and simulated to analyze their stability and seakeeping performance. The design results are a monohull USV equipped with an RCWS with the main dimension of 1.7 m long, 0.9 m wide, and 1.04 m high. The stability simulations conclude that Model 4 is the most stable platform with the highest peak value of GZ for 0.112 m in angle degree of 108.2°. The seakeeping simulations show that at wave heading 45°, model 3 has the highest RAO with the peak value of 4.703 at the frequency of 0.4 rad/s. At wave heading 90°, model 5 has the highest RAO with the peak value of 0.095 at the frequency of 0.4 rad/s. At wave heading 135°, model 1 has the highest RAO of 0.012 at the frequency of 0.581 rad/s.

Why has Sweden risen in the IFPI league tables but been surpassed by South Korea? A comparative case study

Abstract Sweden has risen in the global music market charts since the early 2000s and has a substantial pool of music companies, songwriters, and artists. Nevertheless, over the last decade it has lost ground relative to South Korea in particular. By analyzing the factors associated with global music market strength among 20–50 countries and comparing Sweden and South Korea's comparative advantages and disadvantages, the current article underscores that intellectual property rights (e.g., r = 0.842), GDP per capita, (e.g., r = 0.754), and piracy rates (e.g., r = −0.699) correlate with music market size. Thus, South Korea (and China) has benefitted from overall economic growth whereas Sweden's growth rates are comparatively lower. Moreover, at the local level, South Korea has a more dominating market niche signified by both big and small K-pop companies that compete for demand and supply at the local (South Korea), regional (greater East Asia), and global levels of the music industries.

English

The Horn of Africa is a term given to the geographic map in the North East part of the African continent. The region connects Africa to the outside world like the Middle East, Europe and Asia that indicates its geopolitical significance. Despite its geopolitical significance, the region remains one of the most unstable, underdeveloped and security wise volatile than any other region of Africa. These multiple challenges and interlinkages affect not only the region but also the international community in a variety of its forms; like the increased rate of piracy, terrorism, transfer of arms and light weapons, black marketing, and influx of refugee crises are few cases to mention. This calls for the involvement of responsible big powers. Currently, various powers are engaged in the promotion of peace and security in the region, of which China is one. In lieu of this, then, the objective of the paper is to identify and describe the areas where China is contributing its part in addressing regional disruption. Hence, the study has identified China’s contribution as plausible in the fight against piracy in the coastal areas of Somalia, peace keeping mission and post conflict peace building in Somalia, and mediating peace process in Sudan and South Sudan. Yet its predicament is found to be its inability to help pressure groups and civil society organization in their effort for same effect. Hence, it is recommended that China need to device ways in how manner best to work with nongovernmental institutions in ameliorating regional disruption. Key words: Peace and security, big power responsibility, peacekeeping, pirates.

The Position of the Nigerian Copyright Act in this Digital Age.

This paper crystallizes the Nigerian copyright act position through the statement of the loopholes that demerit the act and diminish the standard of the act to meet the modern standard of the digital age. Ab initio, I expressly stated the definition of copyright which was not given a statutory definition in the Nigerian copyright act. We further meticulously x-rayed the historical evolution of the act beginning from the colonial era to the post-colonial era. I also examined the effect of digital technology in the copyright field and expressly brought out the trait statistics that rank Nigeria as one of the countries that the rate of piracy is beyond average. This paper also stretched eye to other factors that devalue the said copyright legislation. Towards the dusk of the paper, I respectfully brought out practical solutions to the existing problems of the copyright legislation to meet the needs of the digital age, and at the tail end, I furnished my conclusion.

Empirical Study of Consumer Digital Piracy Behavior among Indonesian Youths

The problem of digital piracy is most prevalent in developing countries, such as China and Indonesia Countries that have low average incomes and high unemployment rates are particularly vulnerable to digital piracy. The role of government in improving the field of information technology is still low. This kind of situation has encouraged the increase of the rate of software piracy in the country. The purpose of this paper is effect of Perceived benefits on the attitude toward digital piracy and intention to pirate digital piracy based on models from empirical research. This study uses SEM analysis to assess the effect of Perceived benefits on the attitude towards digital piracy and intention to pirate digital piracy. Result of this study, Perceived benefits influences consumer's attitude toward digital piracy and intention to pirate digital piracy, the attitude toward digital piracy influences intention to pirate digital piracy.

Factors Affecting on the Digital Piracy Behavior: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

Digital products are illegally used in various areas in the world. This behavior causes bad effects on e-commerce activities. This study aimed to find out factors influencing digital piracy behavior in Vietnam, where digital piracy rate is fairly high. In previous research, the approach focused on separate aspects and the scope focused mainly on students. Therefore, an integrated approach could return a better result. Based on the theory of planned behavior and related researches, this study proposed an integrated model to explore the factors affecting digital piracy behavior in Vietnam. Some viewpoints that have been integrated into the proposed model include a psychological, moral, legal, economic and technological viewpoint. The sample consists of 264 people in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The results showed that the perceived behavioral control strongly influences the intention, and then on the digital piracy behavior. Besides, perceived behavioral control is influenced by technology development and perceived risk. This research confirmed most of the proposed hypotheses and showed the important role of technology in predicting this kind of behavior in Vietnam. Based on the findings of this study, several suggestions have been made to mitigate the digital piracy situation in Vietnam.

Transaction Utility of End-User Pirates – An Analysis

Abstract The present study hypothesized the concept of transaction utility that consumers receive from end-user piracy and assumes that it is positively associated with the difference between the price of original good and cost of copying the pirated product. We assume two groups of consumers – one enjoying transaction utility from piracy and the other not enjoying the same. The results show that a monopolist producing information-goods will adopt a low-price low-quality strategy in presence of transaction utility. An increase in the quality of the pirated product will also induce the firm to continue with the low-price–low-quality strategy. However, an increase in the proportion of the consumers not receiving transaction utility from piracy will increase the price and quality of the original good. In addition, with an increase in the average and marginal willingness-to-pay parameter of the consumers, the price, quality and profit of the original good will increase. The expected piracy rate is observed to be decreasing in transaction utility parameter when the upper boundary of willingness-to-pay parameter of the consumer is below a critical level.

The Impact of Illegal Fishing on Maritime Piracy: Evidence from West Africa

The recent increase in maritime piracy is often associated with economic issues such as a decline in the fishing industry, but there is still no consensus on whether a decrease in local fishing causes a rise in piracy rates. We introduce the use of unreported fish catch and fishing industry type in addition to reported fish catch in Gulf of Guinea waters when analyzing factors influencing West African piracy. Using a newly released data set, which includes Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fish catch by sector, we show that an increase in reported and unreported fishing yields an increase in piracy. Further, we find that increases in industrial fish catch are related to increases in maritime piracy while the opposite is true of artisanal and subsistence fish catch. We expect this new approach will highlight the impact of IUU and large-scale industrial fishing on piracy throughout the entire world.

Globalization and software piracy within and across 103 countries

Globalization has been linked with many social problems, though little research has examined its relationship with software piracy. The ramifications of software piracy may vary across countries leading to varied criminal justice responses. More developed countries, which produce the most software and stand to gain the most from its protection, use diplomatic leverage to strengthen piracy laws in less developed countries. Consequently, lesser-developed countries are forced to adopt rigorous policies for IP protection. As such, we hypothesize that globalization will decrease software piracy rates over time. Using a modified random effect model, the current study examines the within and between countries effects of globalization on software piracy rates over time in 103 countries across a period of 14 years. Results indicate that globalization is significantly associated with a decrease in software piracy within and between countries over time while controlling for important time-varying and time invariant predictors. Interaction effects suggest that the relationship between globalization and software piracy is less pronounced in Asian countries and more pronounced in Latin American countries. In sum, some crimes, like software piracy, may be deterred if there are strong enough incentives and international pressures to regulate such crime through legislative and policy reforms.

Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement

We evaluate the unexpected shutdown of kino.to, a major platform for unlicensed video streaming in the German market. Using highly disaggregated clickstream data in a difference-in-differences setting, we compare the web behavior of 20,000 consumers in Germany and three control countries. We find that this intervention was not very effective in reducing unlicensed consumption or encouraging licensed consumption, mainly because users quickly switch to alternative unlicensed sites. We highlight that the shutdown additionally had important unintended externalities. Individuals who never visited kino.to and who additionally clicked on news articles that covered the shutdown increased their visits to piracy websites substantially. We show that this effect largely comes from articles that explicitly mention alternative websites or suggest that users do not have to fear legal consequences from unlicensed streaming. Finally, we document that the unlicensed video streaming market is much more fragmented after the shutdown, potentially affecting future interventions, at least in the short run. We argue that our results can be helpful to understand why online piracy rates are still high, despite a plethora of enforcement efforts.