Fairness in digital sharing legal professional attitudes toward digital piracy and digital commons

Malgorzata Ciesielska, Dariusz Jemielniak*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
14 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Contrary to a popular belief of lawyers having the most strict perception of law, law professionals actually strongly skew toward more favorable views of digital sharing. According to our qualitative study, relying on in-depth interviews with 50 Harvard lawyers, digital piracy is quite acceptable. It is considered fair, especially among friends and for noncommercial purposes. We argue that this not only can indicate that the existing law is becoming outdated because of its inability to be enforced, but also that ethically it is not corresponding to what is considered fair, good service, or being societally beneficial. The common perception of relying on a fixed price for digital content is eroding. We show that on the verges of business, society, and law, there is a potential for the new paradigm of digital commons to emerge.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)899-912
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Volume73
Issue number7
Early online date19 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2022

Keywords

  • piracy (copyright)
  • Copyright Infringement
  • to peer file sharing
  • resource sharing
  • collaboration
  • popular culture

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