Justifications to file sharing activities

Participants, regardless of age and technical knowledge gave justification to their file sharing activities. Normalisation was the reason gave by less tech-savvy and younger participants as a justification for their file sharing activities. Most of the younger participants and less tech-savvy people who downloaded files in low volumes believed that file sharing was very common among people. They thought that people who downloaded files frequently were doing serious crime. Belief that everyone were accessing files in the same way and that file sharing is normal among peers, relieved them. They never believed that they were committing a crime by file sharing. Older participants thought that they were not committing any offence when compared to participants who downloaded in high volumes. They described their file sharing activity as light and acceptable.

Older participants justified their act of purchasing unauthorized contents online by saying that they were contributing to the industry. They purchased unauthorized contents in addition to the unauthorized downloads. Considering the large amount of profits of the industry, the amount they downloaded was little, they claimed. Participants, who were about the legality of the file sharing, believed that downloading files was not an offence when compared to a physical crime. They distinguished between the physical piracy and digital piracy, suggesting that digital piracy was acceptable.

Older tech-savvy participants have varied reasons to justify their behaviour. They have developed an attitude favouring the file sharing activities. According to Collector topology, purchasing the heavy volume of downloads was not affordable. They justified their act by describing file sharing as an indispensable factor in expanding their knowledge and accessing new content. Some participants believed that there no harm in trying the products before purchasing. Another participant pointed out the huge profits industry was making through duplicating content and selling them to customers at big prices. He said that industry was releasing old movies in new formats with the advancement of technology and that everyone was purchasing the movie that is available in different formats.

Some of the participants justified their behaviour saying that big corporations do not require their help and money, as opposed to independent artists and independent films. Record industry was late to prevent people from file sharing and industry has not utilized the opportunities to provide legal and high quality contents for public use. Napster, Kazaa and several other similar sites were offering the service. Legal file sharing would become acceptable if file sharing sites and application offered paid-for services for high quality content at lower price. People would have accepted and used the service, considering the security they offered. Unlike other file sharing, they needs not bother about viruses or malicious codes. Their described paid-for sites as too little, too late. All these reasons made people stick on to file sharing of unauthorized contents and prevented them from switching to legal alternatives.