Exploring the Impact of Technology on the Proliferation of Digital Media Piracy in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to examine the impact that increased access to technology has had to making copyright infringement easier, and how it has allowed piracy to become more rampant in less economically developed countries (LEDCs), with Harare, Zimbabwe as a case study. This study will take into account the socio-economic reasons for the rise of piracy and how they relate to the technological reasons for the prevalence of this phenomenon. By using findings given to use by through the use of an anonymous questionnaire and briefly interviewing some anonymous content creators in Zimbabwe, this study seeks to understand how increased access to technology is a double-edged sword allowing for easier access and production of media, which unfortunately includes accessing works illegally, in a way that disenfranchises creators. This study finds that people’s attitudes to piracy are very relaxed, mostly due to bad economic conditions, and a lack of proper law enforcement, as examined by the strain theory of deviance and the technological acceptance theory.