Stakeholders’ perceptions of book piracy’s benefits to society in Lithuania
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-08-2020-0118 |
| Published date | 03 August 2021 |
| Date | 03 August 2021 |
| Pages | 605-618 |
| Author | Vincas Grigas,Arūnas Gudinavičius |
Stakeholders’perceptions of
book piracy’s benefits to
society in Lithuania
Vincas Grigas and Arūnas Gudinavi
cius
Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Abstract
Purpose –Book piracy represents a threat to the publishing industry, while for the society, book piracy
provides some benefits. The purposeof this study is to examine views of readers, authors andpublishers in
Lithuaniaon book piracy’sbenefitsto society.
Design/methodology/approach –This studyuses phenomenography to examine readers’, authors’and
publishers’reflectionson book piracy’s potential social benefits. The authorscollected research data via semi-
structured, face-to-faceinterviews with 10 participants from each group (readers,authors and publishers –a
total of 30 interviews).
Findings –Six qualitatively different categories of attitudes were revealed, namely, that book piracy
provides easierand more convenient access to books, helps readerssave money, pushes readers to read more,
helps for authorsto gain more popularity, provides wider access to booksand provides consumers with moral
satisfaction. The similarities between readers’, authors’and publishers’views on benefits of book piracy
outweighthe differences.
Practical implications –Theoretical background indicatesthat stakeholders’explicitly stated attitudes
towards book piracy contribute to their book piracy intentions. This study hopes to help publishers in
Lithuania confront the challenge of book piracy and develop effective strategies to attenuate a normative
framework with four actionablerecommendations to help professionals in the publishing industry to better
addressbook piracy.
Originality/value –Book piracy continues to perplex publishers, in part because they lack a clear
understandingof the social and psychological underpinningsof book piracy. This study aims to developsuch
an understanding by filling gap in the literatureon book piracy: the lack of work on readers’, authors’and
publishers’perceptionsof book piracy’s individual and socialbenefits.
Keywords Copyright, Reading, Publishing, Phenomenography, Social benefits, Book piracy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Although digital piracy has received considerable scholarly attention in recent years,
publications on book piracy are still scarce. Most of the notable works in the field (Van
Hoorebeek, 2003;Zimmerman, 2010;Blankfield and Stevenson, 2012;Hardy et al.,2014;
Jonas and Sirkeci, 2018;Lee et al., 2019;Till et al., 2019) analyse the scale at which pirated
content is used and how readers understand and perceive piracy. Many researchers have
emphasised the harm that book piracy does to the publishing industryand discussed ways
to tackle this imposing and growing challenge (Trivedi, 2010;Blankfield and Stevenson,
2012;Mccoyd, 2012;Dionisio et al.,2013;Sudler, 2013;Appleyard, 2015;Scott, 2016;
Ahmadu, 2018) and others (Goode,2012) have noted that the digital piracy literature should
discuss the actual and potential individual and social benefits of digital piracy in greater
Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.
Book piracy’s
benefits to
society
605
Received19 August 2020
Revised28 May 2021
5June2021
Accepted15 June 2021
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.71 No. 6/7, 2022
pp. 605-618
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-08-2020-0118
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm
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