Detailed review about the different Motivations for file sharing

The motivations for file sharing varied with the typology. Alongside, the primary cost factor, they were secondary factors that acted as motivators to file sharing activities. Some of the secondary factors include accessing niche content, sampling content, pushing boundaries, sharing content with family and friends, accessing content pre-release and expanding knowledge of specific content.

Generation File-share
To keep up with the peer group, Generation File-share always downloaded music singles. Most of them were encouraged to download the contents online because they were free to access. The most common and widely accepted method to accessing free music was YouTube Converters and file sharing applications. Participants believed that paying for music was strange as music can be accessed free online. Generation File-share considered accessing music from Paid-for sites like iTunes an unaffordable method. For a single music download, iTunes charged £1 and this was unaffordable for participants who download 6 to 10 music singles a week.

Self-serving Consumer
Accessing contents for free of cost is the factor that encouraged Self serving consumers to do unauthorised file sharing. Apart from that, they were also driven by the fact that file sharing enabled access to popular Hollywood movies and TV series that is not yet released in the UK.

Collectors
Access to a variety of content is what motivates collectors to perform file sharing activities. They could have access to wide-spread contents easily. They believed that without file sharing, accessing such variety of contents will be expensive. Through file sharing sites, accessing specific contents was easy and inexpensive. Along with the ability to sample content online, they were also given a chance to expand their knowledge. Collectors like to listen to music and watch TV series before they are launched in the UK.

Cybertechies
In the case of Cybertechies, file sharing allowed them to provide contents to family and friends. This was the main motivator for Cybertechies to file sharing. They shared files with friends and family via online, hard drives and CDs. Along with the ability to share contents with others, they were motivated by the challenges offered by file sharing and the thought of pushing boundaries. The challenges of file sharing were finding different and new ways to downloading contents and to download superior quality unauthorised content. They admitted that if they had to pay for the downloaded contents, it would be an expensive affair as they downloaded in large quantities.

All these factors motivated participants of different levels to sharing unauthorized files online.