An investigation of the intention to share media files over peer-to-peer networks

Abstract

File-sharing over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks once consisted largely of music files, which, when shared, were infringements of copyrights. For this reason, studies of the behavioural intentions (BIs) to share files over P2P networks have often focused on the piracy of music files. However, with improved technology and increased bandwidth, large files such as videos are routinely shared. As industry-led efforts may have had some success stemming illegal file-sharing, and as new and legitimate applications of P2P file-sharing are emerging, it is important to include media files of all types and consider file-sharing that is both legitimate and that which constitutes piracy within the scope of our study. To study the intention to share media files over P2P networks, we evaluate two alternative models. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is the underlying theory for both models, one of which is based on the original TPB and one on the decomposed TPB. We test both models using previously validated instruments and find that both models can explain a significant portion of the variance in the intentions to share media files over P2P networks. However, the model based on the decomposed TPB can explain more of the variance. A second advantage of this model is that it can be more readily translated to managerial actions, which are also explored.

Keywords:

• P2P file-sharing
• behavioural intention models
• theory of planned behaviour
• decomposed theory of planned behaviour