| Sumario: | Few subjects in recent years have received as much attention as the subject of software piracy. Software piracy has become a major problem for the software industry. The common research framework is based in the domain of ethical decision-making. However, recent studies suggest that many individuals do not treat software piracy as an ethical matter. In the present research, individual and situational variables are examined as a set of predictors of respondents' reported leniency towards software piracy. These include: (i) social acceptance of software piracy; (ii) availability of original software; (iii) pricing strategy of original software; (iv) urgency of computer software; and (v) knowledge of intellectual property protection. The original independent variables, apart from 'urgency of computer software', are found to be supported in the survey. An exploratory investigation identifies household monthly income as an additional predictor of respondents' reported leniency toward software piracy. This is not a partisan work, but its conclusions challenge certain legal assumptions and the traditional ethical model of software piracy. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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