Software Piracy in China

A marketer's ethical decision making process is influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factors comprise the individual's ethical predispositions (strength of moral character, ethical sensitivity, etc.), whereas external factors represent situational and environmental aspects. Referring to general marketing theory, the environmental aspects can be conceived as socio-cultural circumstances under which decisions are made. The closer cultural environment comprises microcultural factors (particularly formal and informal organizational rules/norms; rule/norm enforcement, as well as significant others). The wider cultural environment, on the other hand, comprises macrocultural factors (particularly nationality, country of origin and/or country of residence).

Software piracy is widely prevalent in China. Compared to other situations such as shoplifting, where consumers have no problems realizing the legal and ethical problems they encounter post their action, software piracy is a special case in that consumers realize the legal problem but not the ethical one.

Many consumers think software piracy is low in moral intensity. Macro-level analyses have proven that the culture factor influences a country's software piracy rate. The culture factors, especially the collectivist culture, can be used to explain the non-recognition of the ethical problem of software piracy in Asian countries. A Chinese proverb "He who shares is to be rewarded; he who does not, condemned." is widely cited to refer to the impact of the collectivist culture on software piracy.

The collectivist culture in China leads to a weak individual assumption of responsibility. Consumers in the collectivist culture not only like to share software, they also like to share responsibilities. In many cases in Chinese history, criminals were not punished as individuals. The entire family of a criminal would be punished. Also, there is the idea that rightness of a law decreases when more people violate it. A Chinese proverb "the law cannot apply if everybody breaks it" heralds this view.

When an individual thinks that the other party is responsible for a legal problem, it is less likely that he/she will question his/her own behavior. The individual simply blames the other party. Then, in ethical decision making process the assumption of responsibility will affect consumer evaluation of an alternative.

A culture is highly influenced by historical factors. Chinese culture and history also influence consumer attitude toward copyright laws as the copyright concept originates from the western culture and does not comply with traditional Chinese view. This attitude towards copyright laws affects the ethical decision-making. Basically consumers ask questions "who do the copyright laws protect?" and "Is it fair?"

Although software piracy prevalent in China cannot be totally appropriated