IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v65y2006i2p173-201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Motivates Software Crackers?

Author

Listed:
  • Sigi Goode
  • Sam Cruise

Abstract

Software piracy is a serious problem in the software industry. Software authors and publishing companies lose revenue when pirated software rather than legally purchased software is used. Policy developers are forced to invest time and money into restricting software piracy. Much of the published research literature focuses on software piracy by end-users. However, end-users are only able to copy software once the copy protection has been removed by a ‘cracker’. This research aims to explore why, if copy protection is so difficult to remove, do crackers invest their skill and time in this activity instead of more lucrative and legal employment. This study develops a framework of neutralisation, justification and motivation and goes directly to the initial software crackers to determine what motivates their activities. The study first applies this framework in an anonymous online survey of crackers. The study then conducts cognitive interviews with eight crackers to explore and further validate the survey’s findings. The study finds the challenge of removing the copy protection from software as the strongest motivation for the actions of crackers. Desire for social participation, while found to be rewarding, was considered unnecessary for crackers to continue their actions. Higher social status was not a motivational factor but was a perceived by-product of cracking. The study also raises areas for future research. Copyright Springer 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Sigi Goode & Sam Cruise, 2006. "What Motivates Software Crackers?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 173-201, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:65:y:2006:i:2:p:173-201
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-005-4709-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-005-4709-9
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-005-4709-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ivan Bozhikin & Nikolay Dentchev, 2018. "Discovering a Wilderness of Regulatory Mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility: Literature Review," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 145-174, June.
    2. Shariffah Zamoon & Shawn Curley, 2008. "Ripped from the Headlines: What can the Popular Press Teach us about Software Piracy?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 515-533, December.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:65:y:2006:i:2:p:173-201. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.