Women in Piracy. Experimental Perspectives on Copyright Infringement

Lotito Gianna, Maffioletti Anna, Migheli Matteo and Ramello Giovanni B. ()
Additional contact information
Lotito Gianna: Università di Torino, Turin, Italy
Maffioletti Anna: Università di Torino, Turin, Italy
Migheli Matteo: Università di Torino, Turin, Italy
Ramello Giovanni B.: Università di Torino, Turin, Italy

Review of Law & Economics, 2025, vol. 21, issue 2, 199-220

Abstract: This paper presents a behavioural investigation into music piracy using experimental data, to our knowledge one of the few studies of its kind. Employing experimental methods, we elicited preferences for legal and burned CDs, alongside hypothetical choices for further consumption behaviours such as downloading music. The subjects were university students, deemed the most appropriate sample for analysing legal and illegal music consumption patterns. We focus on how gender influences copyright infringement, specifically examining differences between men and women in their piracy behaviours. The results reveal significant gender disparities: women engage in piracy less frequently than men. However, once they do engage in illegal behaviour, that is, once they start to download music files illegally, the number of such files does not differ between men and women. Both genders perceive original CD prices as unfair, but women express stronger feelings of unfairness and place more value on legality. Women’s reluctance toward piracy seems driven by ethical concerns, while men place greater value on the product’s originality. In this context, our paper aims to provide valuable insights for policymakers, offering tools to develop more effective legal strategies while shedding light on a specific aspect of economic behaviour.

Keywords: piracy; copyright; experiment; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 K42 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/rle-2025-0004 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:rlecon:v:21:y:2025:i:2:p:199-220:n:1013

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyte ... journal/key/rle/html

DOI: 10.1515/rle-2025-0004

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Law & Economics is currently edited by Francesco Parisi

More articles in Review of Law & Economics from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().