This study reviews ship security assessment. The objectives are to explore the possibilities for quantifying and performing a more thorough ship security risk analysis than that described in the International Ship and Port Facility Security code and to evaluate to what extent this more detailed analysis increases ship security and facilitate the effective selection of risk control options. The study focuses on Somali-based maritime piracy, using piracy on the Indian Ocean as a case study. Data are collected using questionnaires and interviews with civilian and military security experts who possess firsthand experience of piracy off the coast of Somalia. The data are collected specifically for this study and describe and quantify the threat’s capability, intent and likelihood of exploiting a ship’s vulnerability. Based on the collected description of the threat, the study analyzes and describes: probability of detection by pirates, probability of successful approach, and probability of successful boarding. The performed work shows good agreement between calculated probabilities and frequencies in the cited incident reports. Also, the developed scenarios describe the most important influences on the analyzed areas. The research therefore shows that the proposed risk-based approach, which uses structurally collected and documented information on the threat, can increase ship security by assisting in selecting risk control options. The approach also allows for a better understanding of the causal relationship between threat and risk than that provided in today’s security analysis by ship owners, for example. This understanding is crucial to choosing effective and robust risk control options.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

No description available.

<p>The ability to digitize information goods such as music and movies and the growing accessibility of the Internet has led to online piracy and the emergence of a new class of retailers that specialize in digital downloads. Both online piracy and digital retailers have changed the dynamics of the information goods distribution channel. In my dissertation I focus on issues related to this change.</p><p>In the first chapter, "Digital music set free: the flip side of DRM," I study the effect of Digital Rights Management (DRM) mechanisms on the competition between traditional and digital retailers and on online piracy. DRM refers to technologies designed to control how end users may access, copy, or convert digital media. In the context of music downloads, DRM makes piracy of digital music more difficult, and until recently, most legal outlets for downloadable music only sold songs with DRM protection. Recently download retailers have convinced record companies to allow them to sell DRM-free music. The introduction of DRM-free music raises several important questions: Will music piracy increase as the opponents of DRM-free music predict? Will the music industry profits go up or down? How will CD retailers be affected? Will all labels start selling the unprotected (DRM-free) content? </p><p>I address these and related questions by developing a model of a music distribution channel that allows a record label to sell through both traditional CD retailers and iTunes-like download services at different wholesale prices. Among the interesting results, the analysis indicates that the level of piracy may decline when DRM protection is removed and that the traditional retailers much prefer to compete with distributors of pirated digital music rather than with legal music download services.</p><p>The competition between online and traditional retailers has led to interesting pricing policies on which I focus in the second chapter, "Digital movies at one simple price: the effect on competition." Online retailers tend to prefer uniform pricing (e.g. iTunes Store) where all "products" carry a single price, while traditional retailers do not have a policy of uniform prices. It is important to understand why one retailer should choose a single, uniform price and what impact it has on the competing retailer who chooses multiple prices. I focus specifically on the impact that single price policy adopted by digital retailer has on the traditional retailer. I also analyze the choice of uniform vs. differentiated pricing by modeling the competition between online and traditional retailers for vertically differentiated information goods. Importantly, I demonstrate how the asymmetric equilibrium we observe in the market today can change systematically with the nature of competition between the retailers.</p> / Dissertation

The safety of the Southeast Asian searway is facing more and more serious threat which includes pirate and sea terrorism. Those damage the economic and safety of the members of Association of Southeast Asia, however, each of the members doesn¡¦t have enough power to resist the enemy. When the members of the ASEAN start to solve the problems, the lack of technology and military ability make them dependant on the powerful states extra-Southeast Asia, besides, the limit of the three rules (equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, and unanimity) of ASEAN also obstruct the regionalism. The research which surveys the official and unofficial documents, international organizations, and international law about piracy and sea terrorism finds that the members of ASEAN on the base of the same issue of common interests will cooperate by the way of spill-over. This proves that each members can cooperate from on single issue to form the regionalism.

This thesis analyzes the enforcement measures for the protection of intellectual property rights in an international and regional framework. The challenges posed by the digital technology / the difficulties faced by right holders, judiciary, public agencies, international and regional organizations in the implementation stages will be discussed by referring to the legal texts such as the TRIPS Agreement, the EU Enforcement Directive and Regulations. All dimensions of counterfeiting and piracy will constitute an important focus of this thesis. The thesis will seek to clarify uncertainties arising from the jurisdictional conflicts for the determination of the applicable law and competent courts in intellectual property cases involving foreign elements.

Today, the problem of piracy is a major concern for governments, academia and software industry as it has become a prevailing phenomenon. While much effort has been devoted to identify the factors that cause software piracy, most studies focus primarily on if social sanctioning mechanisms can be effective in deterring piracy. In this thesis, the research focus differs in that it emphasizes the role of self-sanction to safeguard copyright. Based on Bandura¡¦s Social Cognitive Theory, the determinants of effective self-sanction against piracy are presupposed to be enactive mastering and vicarious observation. We therefore hypothesize that well being resulted from previous software creativity experience as well as moral obligation should positively correlate with creative self-efficacy and ethical self-efficacy concerning software piracy. The results show that creative experience indeed significantly predicts both creative and ethical self-efficacy, and four constructs (i.e., creative experience, creative self-efficacy, moral obligation, and subjectively perceived critical mass) have significantly positive influence on ethical self-efficacy. Moreover, the results show that, within creative experience, the ¡§relationship development¡¨ dimension has significantly positive influence on ethical self-efficacy concerning software piracy, while the ¡§self-acceptance¡¨ dimension exerts significantly negative influence.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Maliye Anabilim Dalı, 2008. / Kaynakça var.

This paper contributes to the emerging discussion about the modified behavioural intention of consumers abstaining from pirating and acquiring music through legal means (again) and aims at accurately depicting the key factors influencing the intention of Swedish consumers to acquire music legally. METHODOLOGY This quantitative study followed a deductive approach whereby hypotheses have been deduced from and formulated based on previous studies and present theories. Primary data has been collected by means of a paper-pencil and web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire encompassed a total of 22 questions, was structured on the basis of the different factors that influence consumers’ behavioural intention to acquire music legally and has been both pre-tested on a small sample of the actual population and reviewed by a skilled professor specialised in marketing and research. By using a combination of the purposive sampling and snowball sampling method, 267 valid surveys have ultimately been taken into account. In order to analyse the data adequately, the statistical tool SPSS has been utilised. The analysis was subclassified into different phases: (1) Pearson’s correlation coefficients have been regarded to test the construct validity, (2) Alpha’s Cronbach was tested in order to receive information about the reliability of the sets of items and (3) a multiple linear regression as well as various ANOVA tests were run in order to test the hypotheses. FINDINGS The attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control toward music piracy as well as the perceived prosecution risk and magnitude of consequences proved to be significant predictors for consumers’ behavioural intention to acquire music legally, whereas the legitimate price of music and the idolization of artists were measured to be statistically insignificant. In addition, significant differences among female and male consumers and the different age and income levels could be revealed as well. IMPLICATIONS As predominantly younger consumers were engaged in music piracy, it is suggested to strengthen teenagers’ comprehension of copyrights through ethical education. In addition, an intensification and proliferation of visible signs pronouncing against music piracy on il/legal networking sites, physical formats, online libraries and stores may also yield to a change in consumers’ intention to acquire music legally in the future. LIMITATIONS This study was limited in terms of generalising the results and developing statistical inferences from the actual sample to the population having been studied. Despite the goal to yield a balanced proportion between female and male, younger and older as well as less wealthy and wealthy consumers, the actual sample predominantly consisted of younger and middle-aged consumers caused by youngsters’ and older individuals’ unwillingness and / or lack of interest in (a) the study or (b) music. In addition, due to time and financial limitations, the handing out of the paper-pencil questionnaire was only realised in Kronobergs län’s four largest municipalities Växjö, Ljungby, Alvesta and Älmhult. Furthermore, in view of the developed measurement instrument, it should be underlined that of the seven developed variables, three were constructed by merely two items so that interpretations were considered tentatively. FURTHER RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS A replication of the study is suggested in order to generalise and confirm the stability of the results. The inclusion / development of more items per factor is recommended in order to increase the attainment of significant, representative numerical data. Among the factors introduced in this study, consumers’ rebelliousness in terms of consumers’ feeling to be compelled to behave contradictory to inducted rules and standards and additional aspects having been of relevance within the area of software and movie piracy might be taken into account, adapted to and tested on the field of music infringement as well. In addition, a broader scope of the sample concerning respondents’ demographics and accessibility is desirable in order to warrant an appropriate reflection of the population. Special emphasis may also be placed on (1) direct comparisons between Swedish consumers’ behavioural intentions toward the il/legal acquisition of music in the past and in recent times, (2) other provinces in order to reveal possible differences between consumers from the Northern and Southern part of Sweden or even (larger) cities and the countryside and (3) the execution of a similar research by selecting qualitative data collection methods in order to receive in-depth information and thus answer the question why consumers tend to regard a specific factor as more influencing than another one.

This study presented a critical investigation of the mainstream neo-liberal approach to global intellectual property rights protection. There is a widespread but incorrect perception in the contemporary intellectual property policy regime that ineffective copyright protection in developing countries is primarily an institutional problem deriving from the lack of economic capacity and jurisprudential systems. Arguing that the conventional policy regime offers only a limited account for global copyright protection, this study aimed to show that inadequate copyright protection is not only an institutional but also historically contingent cultural problem. For the purpose, the present study conducted two phases of investigation: (1) a cross- national data analysis of software piracy and (2) comparative historical analysis of authorship in England and China. The first study empirically examined the key determinants of software piracy in the contemporary international market. From multivariate statistical analyses of international data, the study attempted to identify significant factors facilitating software piracy. Special attention was paid to identifying the influence of national culture in software piracy when other institutional factors were controlled. The results showed that a combined outcome of multiple factors including national income, institutional capacity for property protection, in-group collectivist cultural practices, and attitudes toward international intellectual property protection explains the software piracy problem. The second study aimed to provide a more in-depth understanding of the historical linkage between copyright and culture. It traced the historical formation of authorship in English and Chinese print culture to examine whether and why there emerged contrasting conceptions of authorship between them. The findings showed that there was a distinctive historical divergence of material, ideological, and institutional contexts of print culture, which led to different authorship conceptions between England and China. This implies that authorship as the fundamental cultural basis of modern copyright law was not a natural and universal phenomenon inevitably arising from the printing press but rather historically and culturally contingent. / text