The driving forces behind digital piracy or consumer practice of illegally downloading files from the Internet represent a relatively recent area in academic research (Coyle et al. 2009). Even though it is a global phenomenon with significant impact, little consensus exists as to how to tackle the problem. Gaining deeper insights into social and psychological drivers of piracy across countries is especially promising in curtailing the phenomenon (Goles et al. 2008). While studies have identified several significant determinants, they have provided equivocal or limited evidence for the impact of socially charged factors, such as moral intensity and susceptibility to interpersonal influence. Moreover, subjective perceptions of risk and consumers' rationalizations of ethically questionable behaviors also call for more research attention. These issues, along with the dearth of focus in the literature on consumers beyond the U.S. and Asia (Eisend and Schuchert-Gueler 2006) prompted us to conduct a four-country study in the European Union.
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