Internet Piracy: The Virtual Marketplace for Counterfeit Goods

Abstract

Managers need to monitor several trends to protect their firm’s intellectual property on the Internet. In this chapter, we report global growth of Internet penetration rates and highlight piracy in both the motion picture and software industries that include ethical perceptions of this illicit behavior. We show that pirates on the virtual sea can be very sophisticated. One formidable opponents, is the warez group. Various stakeholders create the supply and demand for fake goods by way of a pyramid of Internet piracy. We provide a synopsis of the recent US government sting operations conducted with the assistance of other countries to target Internet piracy. Finally, we address the problem of educating the consumer that obtaining music, software, movies, and the like without compensation is unethical. This is a key issue in terms of decreasing the demand for counterfeit goods in the virtual marketplace where a consumer can exhibit more rogue behavior with a limited fear of prosecution (Chaudhry et al. 2011a, b). As discussed in Chap. 6, social marketing tactics have been employed by both the Motion Picture Association (MPAA) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to educate the consumer about fake products.