How do hospitality and tourism Students view software piracy?

Ever since the introduction of commercial software, software piracy has been an issue in most, if not all, regions. To address this issue, most official authorities have been trying to stop the spread of pirated software in their own jurisdictions. In spite of the generally agreed importance of intellectual property rights, hospitality and tourism researchers have rarely, if ever, investigated the issue of software piracy. The absence of published articles on the issue of software piracy is particularly true in the context of hospitality and tourism education. This paper reports on a study that examined the perceptions and experiences of hospitality and tourism students on software piracy. On the basis of the empirical results collected from hospitality and tourism students in Hong Kong, it is concluded that most students have used or purchased pirated software. In addition, low prices and easy accessibility are the major reasons for the widespread use of pirated software.