Software Piracy: A Critical Survey of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature

As devices that used software became available to the masses the problem of software piracy arose. Recent theoretical works modeled the software piracy phenomenon; others tried to empirically explain the determinants that can explain this phenomenon. Empirical literature in the latter case is still in it´s infancy. This chapter reviews the theoretical literature focusing on three major models, those that deal with diffusion models, network externalities and with game theory. It also presents the empirical literature in which we identify eight stylized results that reflect key variables across five macroeconomic dimensions that explain software piracy: Economic, Cultural, Technological, Legal and Educational dimensions.