IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cuf/journl/y2019v20i1lupoddar.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Limiting End-user Piracy - The Role of Private and Public Anti-Piracy Measure

Author

Listed:
  • Yuanzhu Lu

    (China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Economics and Finance)

  • Sougata Poddar

    (Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University)

Abstract

We study when the original product developer makes costly investment to deter end-user piracy in a given regime of IPR protection. We find that when the consumers' tastes are sufficiently diverse and IPR protection is weak, only then it is profitable for the product developer to tolerate piracy. In all the other cases, it is profitable to deter, unless piracy is blockaded by strong IPR protection. The relationship between the optimal deterrence level from the product developer (private anti-piracy measure) and the degree of IPR protection in the economy (public anti-piracy measure) can be monotonic or non-monotonic. The private optimal deterrence level generally increases with the quality of the pirated good except when consumers' tastes are sufficiently diverse and the quality of the pirated good is sufficiently high. Public antipiracy measure unambiguously reduces piracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2019. "Limiting End-user Piracy - The Role of Private and Public Anti-Piracy Measure," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 20(1), pages 181-197, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2019:v:20:i:1:lupoddar
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/aef200108LuPoddar.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bae, Sang Hoo & Choi, Jay Pil, 2006. "A model of piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 303-320, September.
    2. Joshua Slive & Dan Bernhardt, 1998. "Pirated for Profit," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 31(4), pages 886-899, November.
    3. Cremer, Helmuth & Pestieau, Pierre, 2009. "Piracy prevention and the pricing of information goods," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 34-42, February.
    4. Paul Belleflamme & Pierre M. Picard, 2007. "Piracy and Competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 351-383, June.
    5. Oz Shy & Jacques‐Françlois Thisse, 1999. "A Strategic Approach to Software Protection," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 163-190, June.
    6. Takeyama, Lisa N, 1994. "The Welfare Implications of Unauthorized Reproduction of Intellectual Property in the Presence of Demand Network Externalities," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 155-166, June.
    7. Kathleen Reavis Conner & Richard P. Rumelt, 1991. "Software Piracy: An Analysis of Protection Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(2), pages 125-139, February.
    8. Francisco Vázquez & Richard Watt, 2011. "Copyright piracy as prey–predator behavior," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 31-43, April.
    9. Tunay I. Tunca & Qiong Wu, 2013. "Fighting Fire with Fire: Commercial Piracy and the Role of File Sharing on Copyright Protection Policy for Digital Goods," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 436-453, June.
    10. Banerjee, Dyuti S., 2003. "Software piracy: a strategic analysis and policy instruments," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 97-127, January.
    11. Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2018. "Strategic Choice of Network Externality and Its Impact on Digital Piracy," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(1), pages 139-160, February.
    12. King, Stephen P. & Lampe, Ryan, 2003. "Network externalities, price discrimination and profitable piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 271-290, September.
    13. Yeh-ning Chen & Ivan Png, 2003. "Information Goods Pricing and Copyright Enforcement: Welfare Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 107-123, March.
    14. Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2012. "Accommodation or deterrence in the face of commercial piracy: the impact of intellectual property rights protection," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(3), pages 518-538, July.
    15. Antonio Andrés, 2006. "The relationship between copyright software protection and piracy: Evidence from europe," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 29-51, January.
    16. MartI´nez-Sánchez, Francisco, 2010. "Avoiding commercial piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 398-408, December.
    17. Peitz, Martin & Waldfogel, Joel, 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195397840.
    18. Banerjee, Dyuti, 2013. "Effect of piracy on innovation in the presence of network externalities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 526-532.
    19. Walter G. Park & Juan Carlos Ginarte, 1997. "Intellectual Property Rights And Economic Growth," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(3), pages 51-61, July.
    20. Kiema, Ilkka, 2008. "Commercial piracy and intellectual property policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 304-318, October.
    21. Dyuti Banerjee, 2011. "On the sufficiency of regulatory enforcement in combating piracy," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 160-176, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kos Koklic, Mateja & Kukar-Kinney, Monika & Vida, Irena, 2022. "Consumers’ de-ownership as a predictor of dark-side digital acquisition behavior: Moderating role of moral intensity and collectivism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 108-116.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2015. "Does the Nature of Piracy and Competition Matter?," Working Papers 2015-04, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    2. Žigić, Krešimir & Střelický, Jiří & Kúnin, Michael, 2023. "Copyright and firms’ own IPR protection in a software market: Monopoly versus duopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Kresimir Zigic & Jiri Strelicky & Michal Kunin, 2020. "Private and Public IPR Protection in a Vertically Differentiated Software Duopoly," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp671, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    4. Tsai, Ming-Fang & Chiou, Jiunn-Rong & Lin, Chun-Hung A., 2012. "A model of counterfeiting: A duopoly approach," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 283-291.
    5. Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2012. "Does Reliable Pirated Product Lead to More Piracy?," Working Papers 2012-05, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    6. Dyuti S. Banerjee, 2014. "Effectiveness of government anti-piracy enforcement policy: commitment versus non-commitment," Chapters, in: Richard Watt (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Copyright, chapter 15, pages 264-284, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Peitz, Martin & Waelbroeck, Patrick, 2006. "Piracy of digital products: A critical review of the theoretical literature," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 449-476, November.
    8. Nie, Jiajia & Zhong, Ling & Li, Gendao & Cao, Kuo, 2022. "Piracy as an entry deterrence strategy in software market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 560-572.
    9. Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2013. "Piracy in a two-sided software market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 78-89.
    10. Chang, Yang-Ming & Walter, Jason, 2015. "Digital piracy: Price-quality competition between legal firms and P2P network hosts," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 22-32.
    11. Cho, Won-Young & Ahn, Byong-Hun, 2010. "Versioning of information goods under the threat of piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 332-340, December.
    12. Kresimir Zigic & Jiri Strelicky & Michael Kunin, 2013. "The Interaction between Private and Public IPR Protection in a Software Market: A Positive and Normative Analysis," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp490, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    13. Jonas Häckner & Astri Muren, 2015. "Counterfeiting and Negative Consumption Externalities – A Closer Look," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 337-350, December.
    14. Kresimir Zigic & Jiri Strelicky & Michael Kunin, 2014. "How Does Public IPR Protection Affect its Private Counterpart? Copyright and the Firms' Own IPR Protection in a Software Duopoly," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp518, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    15. Dyuti Banerjee, 2011. "On the sufficiency of regulatory enforcement in combating piracy," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 160-176, October.
    16. Kresimir Zigic & Jiri Strelicky & Michael Kunin, 2015. "Modeling Software Piracy Protection: Monopoly versus Duopoly," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp551, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    17. Luis Aguiar & Jörg Claussen & Christian Peukert, 2018. "Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 656-678, September.
    18. Yuanzhu Lu & Sougata Poddar, 2015. "Strategic Choice of Network Externality," Working Papers 2015-03, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    19. Banerjee, Dyuti, 2013. "Effect of piracy on innovation in the presence of network externalities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 526-532.
    20. Kogan, Konstantin & Ozinci, Yaacov & Perlman, Yael, 2013. "Containing piracy with product pricing, updating and protection investments," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 468-478.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    IPR protection; Private copyright protection; Piracy rate; Product quality; End-user piracy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2019:v:20:i:1:lupoddar. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.