Abstract
Illegal duplication of copyrighted materials has become a prevalent form of music distribution and is a form of illicit consumer behavior. Through various free file-sharing services, an untold number of individuals can have ready access to both old and new music (some of which has never even been released) at any time and from any place with a connection to the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that much of the recent loss of revenues within the industry—nearly 25% between 1999 and 2003—is attributable to illegal downloading (Mamudi 2003). That figure amounts to an estimated $300 million in revenues per year (Langenderfer and Cook 2001) and represents a decline of 31% in units shipped since 2000 (Wade 2004). One estimate has the total loss of revenues from illegal downloading rising from $2.4 billion in 2003 to $4.7 billion by 2008 (Morris 2004). Considering the sheer number of downloaders—one estimate places their numbers at 60 million (Taylor 2003)—and illicitly downloaded digital products—2,300,000,000 files each month (108th Congress 2004)—it is clear that the illicit download and sharing of copyrighted materials is an extremely important phenomenon both in terms of its detriment to the industry and its disregard for copyright protection.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Academy of Marketing Science
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fowler, A.R., Babin, B.J., Este, A.K. (2015). Burning for Fun or Money: Illicit Consumer Behavior in a Contemporary Context. In: Spotts, H. (eds) Marketing, Technology and Customer Commitment in the New Economy. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11779-9_62
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11779-9_62
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11778-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11779-9
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)