Resumen
Software piracy accounts for billions of dollars in lost sales. But for many nations, U.S. price tags make legal ownership impossible. The main problem areas include Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific region, while the percentage of copies in use that are pirated are estimated to exceed 90% in countries such as Russia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Lebanon and Oman. The article presents a study which confirms the typical view of the software pirate as a male, since there is a significant difference between males and females in the frequency with which they buy pirated software. There is strong agreement from the respondents in terms of buying pirated software in the context of high availability of pirated software, low censure for buying and the high cost of legal software. Reversing these contexts resulted in a significant shift in their responses, suggesting the potential to reduce software piracy by addressing these three issues. However, only the cost issue showed the expected switch from agreement to disagreement.