Halimin Herjanto, Sanjaya S. Gaur, Chayanin Saransomrurtai and Wee Hock Quik
The purpose of this paper is to review the digital piracy literature and present the positive impacts of digital piracy and its benefit to businesses. A great deal of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the digital piracy literature and present the positive impacts of digital piracy and its benefit to businesses. A great deal of the literature discusses the consequences of digital piracy, but, in most cases, the focus is on the negative consequences.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on both the theoretical and empirical academic literature on digital piracy so as to analyze the ways in which digital piracy positively contributes to digital businesses.
Findings
The paper provides information on the positive consequences of digital piracy and demonstrates that the benefits include product diffusion, network externality, innovation, cost reduction, an effective promotional and publicity vehicle, and technology standardization.
Originality/value
This paper investigates potential benefits of digital piracy and provides insights which may offer a fuller picture of the consequences of digital piracy.