Piracy propagation of information goods: Theory, measurement, and application.

摘要

Digital technologies have transformed the traditional structure of production and promotion planning for new information goods. Studies, up to now, have examined implications of file sharing technologies on pricing schemes, protection mechanisms, and distribution strategies of digital contents. However, there is little understanding about the characteristics of piracy propagation process brought about by digital distribution technology. By drastically broadening behavioral options of search, consumption and reproduction of contents, IT-enabled tools may have reshaped conventional way of consumers' engaging in new digital technologies and contents adoption decisions. In this dissertation, I seek to further our understanding of the impacts of the emergence of file sharing technology on consumers' behavior in participating in digital piracy and how such changes brought about by new technology have altered the propagation dynamics of digital contents. I explore several questions regarding the dynamics of digital piracy propagation, influences of heterogeneous population segments on piracy propagation process, and the information role of digital piracy to improve business and policy decisions. My first research question characterizes the demand- and supply-side dynamics of piracy propagation and measures the effectiveness of anti-piracy efforts to curb digital piracy. My second question aims to identify different population segments and their inter-segment influences on piracy propagation. In my third research question, I utilize the consumers' preference information in piracy data to improve market forecasting and promotional decisions. While the first research question characterizes the underlying dynamics of piracy propagation process per title at the aggregated level, the second research question identifies the influence of heterogeneous participants' behavior on the propagation process. The study that addresses the third question is an application to utilize the propagation dynamics for the pre-release forecasting purposes. Overall, my research contributes to a better understanding of the economics of digital products, information products diffusion process, and the economics of digital piracy.