TY - JOUR
T1 - Online software distribution without enforcing copy protection as a strategic weapon
AU - Altinkemer, Kemal
AU - Guan, Junwei
AU - Şahin, Aysegül
PY - 2005/12
Y1 - 2005/12
N2 - We consider a market which has two software firms without copy protection on their software. Economic models are used to analyze different scenarios, and the result shows that when the software protection environment is improving quickly, software firms should not protect their software products, since no copy protection (piracy) can help them to lock-in customers now and make higher profits in the near future. However, if the protection environment does not improve enough or worsens, firms that do not protect their software will not be able to benefit from the customers locked-in by pirate software, and they will be better off protecting their software products.
AB - We consider a market which has two software firms without copy protection on their software. Economic models are used to analyze different scenarios, and the result shows that when the software protection environment is improving quickly, software firms should not protect their software products, since no copy protection (piracy) can help them to lock-in customers now and make higher profits in the near future. However, if the protection environment does not improve enough or worsens, firms that do not protect their software will not be able to benefit from the customers locked-in by pirate software, and they will be better off protecting their software products.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10257-005-0009-2
DO - 10.1007/s10257-005-0009-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:31044447102
SN - 1617-9846
VL - 3
SP - 343
EP - 361
JO - Information Systems and e-Business Management
JF - Information Systems and e-Business Management
IS - 4
ER -