Addicted to pillaging in cyberspace: Investigating the role of internet addiction in digital piracy

The present exploratory study sought to address a gap in the current literature on problematic Internet use by investigating the relationship between Internet addiction and digital piracy. The main research question guiding this study was whether IA was correlated with digital piracy. The expectation was that IA would indeed be correlated with digital piracy and increase odds of perpetration. Secondly, taking into account that previous literature on both IA and digital piracy emphasizes the importance of online relationships (Acier and Kern, 2011, Fitzpatrick, 2008, Marcum et al., 2011), it was expected that deviant peer association would increase the odds of pirating. Finally, taking into account that previous research on both IA and digital piracy has largely shown that these problems affect a greater proportion of males (Andreou and Svoli, 2013, Gunter et al., 2010, Hinduja, 2012, Lam et al., 2009, Shaw and Black, 2008), it was expected that being male would increase the odds of pirating.