Online and physical appropriation: evidence from a vignette experiment on copyright infringement

In this study, we use a vignette experiment to inquire which features of online piracy make it ethically discernible from traditional theft. We find that the actual loss incurred by a victim, and especially a loss of a physical object have particularly strong bearing on ethical evaluation. Interestingly, in contrast to the claims that norms are inherently rotten in computer-mediated interaction, the patterns of ethical judgment in the online and offline contexts are very similar. These are mostly the characteristics of the deed themselves that explain differences in ethical judgment and not a different perception of these characteristics in the online context. We interpret these findings in the context of legal regulations and the design of anti-piracy campaigns.